The Mozambican capital Maputo reeled from wreckage on Friday as protests overnight turned violent following ruling party Frelimo’s re-election after 49 years in power.
Hundreds of opposition supporters demonstrated, rejecting what they called a ballot “stolen” by a “corrupt” electoral commission, which on Thursday announced candidate Daniel Chapo had won the October 9 election with 71 per cent of the vote.
As the election authority, widely accused of acting in favour of Frelimo, was announcing the results, crowds gathered in multiple cities. Protests escalated, with rioters setting fire to tyres to block avenues in Maputo and scaling Frelimo’s election billboards and destroying them.
Some also threw stones at anti-riot police, who fired tear gas to disperse them, an AFP reporter witnessed.
Police said that clashes with protesters had left several injured across the country and reported one death in Nampula in the north.
Mondlane, issued a call for protests on Facebook late Wednesday, encouraging a “great national demonstration” against Frelimo’s half-century in power.
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Chapo, a 47-year-old former provincial governor with no experience in national government, was little known before his surprise nomination as candidate for the ruling Frelimo party. He will take over from President Filipe Nyusi in January.
Opposition leader Venancio Mondlane, has who declared himself the winner and claimed irregularities, officially won just over 20 percent.
“We absolutely reject these results,” said Mondlane, who has urged demonstrations, during a Facebook live broadcast Thursday evening.
“They do not reflect the will of the people,” he added, calling the political situation in the southern African country “rotten, doctored and fake”.
A European Union poll observer mission earlier this month noted “irregularities during counting” and “net favouritism” in favour of Frelimo.
The 47-year-old winner Chapo will officially take charge in January, becoming Mozambique’s first president born after independence from Portugal in 1975 when Frelimo first took power.
He will be the first president not to have fought in the 1975-1992 civil war between Frelimo and Renamo, which claimed around a million lives.
AFP
