AFRICA/MOZAMBIQUE - Post-election tensions rise: opposition leader denounces assassination attempt

Maputo (Agenzia Fides) - Post-election tensions have risen in Mozambique following the controversial victory of FRELIMO (Mozambique Liberation Front), in power since 1975, in the elections of October 9 (see Fides, 24/10/2024).
Added to this tension are the statements of the presidential candidate supported by PODEMOS (Optimist Party for the Development of Mozambique), Venancio Mondlane, who claims to have escaped an assassination attempt in South Africa, where he had taken refuge immediately after the vote. “When I was in South Africa, assassins knocked on my door to kill me,” Mondlane said in a video posted on Facebook. “I had to jump out the back door, sneak through a hair salon (...) and escape with my suitcases and my family.” Mondlane claims that he was staying in the exclusive Sandton area of Johannesburg and had already left South Africa, but does not specify when the assassination attempt took place. For the moment, the incident has not been confirmed by independent sources. Two members of PODEMOS were killed in Maputo when they tried to appeal to the Constitutional Court for alleged electoral fraud (see Fides, 22/10/2024).
The party obtained good results in the parliamentary elections, coming second after FRELIMO, but ahead of the historic opposition party, RENAMO (Mozambican National Resistance). The presidential elections were won by Daniel Chapo, the FRELIMO candidate, with 70.6% of the votes. However, international observers, including those from the European Union, have pointed out numerous inconsistencies in the vote count. PODEMOS has called for a general strike and called on the population to take to the streets to protest against the alleged fraud. Among the groups that have taken to the streets to protest are doctors and health workers, shouting “Do not kill our people.”
In recent days, at least 11 people have lost their lives in clashes with the police in the capital Maputo.
The government of Rwanda has denied that its soldiers intervened to suppress the demonstrations in the capital, stating that its military contingent is in the northern province of Cabo Delgado to help the Mozambican army fight local jihadists. (L.M.) (Agenzia Fides, 5/11/2024)

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