In Mozambique, after a day of anxious waiting, the Constitutional Council finally ratified Frelimo’s victory in the October 9 elections: Daniel Chapo, the candidate of the party in power since independence in 1975, was declared the winner with more 65% of the votes. Opponent Venâncio Mondlane has been contesting the results of these general elections marked by irregularities for more than two months. At least 130 people have died on the sidelines of the vast protest movement which has shaken Mozambique since this contested election, most of the demonstrators killed with live ammunition – according to local observers.
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Neither popular protest nor the denunciation of irregularities was able to influence the results of the polls: the Frelimo candidate, Daniel Chapo, was declared the winner of the Mozambican presidential election with 65.17% of the votes. The Constitutional Council reduced Daniel Chapo’s score by five points. A figure revised slightly downwards, compared to the 71% initially announced by the electoral commission.
The opponent Venâncio Mondlane received 24.19% of the votes according to the Constitutional Court. And Ossufo Momade of Renamo won 6.62% of the votes.
The definitive validation of these results risks relaunching the popular protest which has engulfed Mozambique for two months. This Monday, the capital Maputo was almost empty, some roads closed by barricades, other roads controlled by security forces.
Following the announcement of the results, Daniel Chapo called for “ dialogue to overcome differences “, but he does not seem to have been heard by his opponents who rejected these figures as soon as they were announced: on social networks, Venâncio Mondlane, who has been living in hiding since the election, denounced a power “ illegitimate and illegal » and affirmed that he did not intend to end the protest: “ We must continue the fight, stay united and strong » he declared.
The exiled opponent Venâncio Mondlane had already called for “ a new popular uprising on a scale never seen before » in the event of a definitive victory for Frelimo. Venancio Mondlane had predicted the “ chaos » in the event of confirmation of the election of Daniel Chapo: while Maputo looked like a dead city yesterday, with a strong police deployment around places of power, incidents broke out across Mozambique: barricades and burning tires on the boulevards , fires at toll booths and bank branches, attacks on police stations and administrative buildings have been reported.
The inauguration of the new Mozambican head of state is scheduled for January 15.
This is what was expected. I said that the Constitutional Council would surely reduce the results of the Frelimo party and the number of votes of the Frelimo candidate, and would allocate these votes to the opposition. But that the end result would not change. And that’s what happens. Already before the publication of the results, Frelimo had declared that any type of negotiation was possible. But no one believed that these negotiations could lead to results favorable to parties such as Podemos or other opposition parties. I doubt it will do anything. It is difficult to predict what might happen now, but we can expect that we will probably face more difficult days. Much will depend on how the opposition mobilizes and how Frelimo calls on these parties to sit down with it and negotiate.
Lazaro Mabunda: “Already before the publication of the results, Frelimo had declared that any type of negotiation was possible”
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