The electoral commission of Mozambique this Thursday designated the government candidate, Daniel Chapo, the winner of the presidential elections held on October 9, with 71% of the votes. However, the elections were marred by numerous irregularities, as denounced by both the opposition and the European international observation mission. The opponent Venancio Mondlane, second with 20% of the ballots, rejected results that he described as fraudulent and called on his supporters to “paralyze the country.” Thousands of people took to the streets of major cities to protest and there were violent clashes with security forces.
At least two people died in these protests and 371 were arrested this Thursday, Efe reports. The clinical director of the Manica provincial hospital (center), Juvenaldo Chitovel, assured that at least 44 patients were treated and one of them “died from injuries caused in the demonstrations,” while “four have been operated on, two are more serious in the resuscitation room.” Likewise, he assured: “We have some who have been shot with live ammunition,” something that also happened in other areas of the country, such as the capital. The other death was recorded at the Central Hospital in the city of Nampula (north), capital of the province of the same name, where a dozen people were also injured, some by gunshots, including a teenager.
The results announced by the electoral commission pave the way for the proclamation of Chapo as the new president of Mozambique (34 million inhabitants), although they still must be validated by the Constitutional Court. The government party Mozambique Liberation Front (Frelimo)also wins the legislative elections, held on the same day, with 195 deputies of the 250 that make up Parliament, even improving its 2019 results.
In second place is the Optimist Party for the Development of Mozambique ( Podemos ), which supported Mondlane, with 31 seats, while the historic opposition group Mozambican National Resistance (Renamo) It becomes the third party in the country, falling from 60 to 20 seats. The participation rate has been very low and stands at 43%.
The electoral observation mission of the European Union, the only one present in all the country’s provinces with 179 observers, has denounced the existence of numerous irregularities, both due to the use of public resources during the electoral campaign by the government party, and during the scrutiny, with the “unjustified alteration of the electoral results in the colleges and districts.” The European mission has also verified the artificial modification of the voter census, which is highly inflated, and the lack of transparency in the publication of the count. All of this means that the credibility of the elections among the population is very low.
In recent hours, thousands of citizens have taken to the streets of the capital, Maputo, and other cities in the country to protest and have faced violent repression by security forces. All of this is marked by the murder, on October 18, of Elvino Dias, Venancio Mondlane’s lawyer, and Paulo Guambe, a prominent member of the opposition party Podemos, who died as a result of shots fired at point-blank range by masked men in a street. from Maputo. The opposition has directly pointed out the security forces as responsible for the double crime.
This Friday, Mondlane supporters set up barricades in Maputo, set tires on fire and destroyed Frelimo posters, according to Agence France Presse. “We absolutely reject these results,” said Mondlane, “they do not reflect the will of the people.” The opposition leader described the electoral process in Mozambique as “rotten, adulterated and false.” Oussufo Momade, Renamo candidate, also rejected the provisional results and demanded “the annulment of these fraudulent elections,” Efe reported.
If these results are confirmed, Daniel Chapo, 47, would become the country’s first president born after independence. However, the big surprise of the elections has been the ability to mobilize the opposition candidate Mondlane, who has opened a gap between the country’s two largest parties, Frelimo and Renamo, and is positioned as the new leader of the opposition. Mondlane, known as VM7, has great support in the capital and was on the verge of becoming its mayor in 2023, but again local elections plagued by irregularities prevented him from doing so.
