Tense situation in Maputo as post-election demonstrations rage on

The situation in Maputo Mozambique is tense following the just ended disputed polls, won by ruling party FRELIMO.

Police had to disperse another post-election demonstration with tear gas; on Mao Tse Tung Avenue, central Maputo.

Apparently, Mozambique’s fugitive opposition leader, Venancio Mondlane, on Saturday night claimed that the request by the Constitutional Council for the National Elections Commission (CNE) to provide it with all the polling station results sheets (“editais”) from seven of the 11 provincial constituencies is a sham.

Speaking from an undisclosed location in a live broadcast on his Facebook page, he claimed that polling station staff are in reality being recalled to write new, and therefore fake, editais.

This claim has also been made repeatedly on Mozambican social media over the last few days.

However, Mondlane produced no evidence for this allegation.

Given the CNE’s reputation for fraudulent and incompetent behavior, it is possible that fake editais are being created. But a possibility is not a fact.

Around two hundred people took part in a march in Lisbon at the weekend, to protest against the violence in Mozambique and the authorities’ handling of the general election there – even as demonstration continued in the country itself.

Saturday’s march began near Mozambique’s embassy in Portugal, where more than 120 people gathered to call for “the people in power” before ending at Praça do Comércio.

Chanting slogans and holding placards, after singing the Mozambique national anthem, the demonstrators marched downtown.

Once in the riverside area, the demonstrators once again chanted the anthem “Beloved Homeland” – repeating the line “no tyrant will enslave us” several times.

Brandishing placards calling for “help” and “justice” and pointing out that “those who fall asleep in democracy wake up in dictatorship” they also criticised the country’s president-elect, Daniel Chapo, who was supported in the recent campaign by the governing Frelimo party, which has in power since 1975.

On 24 October, Mozambique’s National Electoral Commission (CNE) announced the victory of Daniel Chapo with 70.67% of the votes in the 9 October elections to choose the head of state.

Club of Mozambique