Mozambique faces protest crackdown following disputed presidential election

Mozambique has resorted to an internet shutdown, denying people their right to participatory democracy amid widespread post-election protests that have seen security forces kill at least 20 people.

There has been growing unrest since 24 October, when the country’s National Electoral Commission (CNE) declared Daniel Chapo of the ruling Frelimo party the winner of the 9 October general election with 71% of the vote, amid vote rigging claims.

Independent presidential candidate and Chapo’s main challenger, Venâncio Mondlane was declared the runner-up with 20% while Ossufo Momade, of former rebel group Renamo, came third with 6%.

Ongoing protests reached a crescendo today (7 November) as the opposition called on people to march in their millions in the capital Maputo to show their dissatisfaction with the handling of the election. Thousands have marched, and the police have fired tear gas protesters. 

South Africa has since announced that it is closing its  Lebombo border “due to security incidents reported on the Mozambican side”, according to South African Broadcasting Corporation (SABC) News. Rwanda also closed its embassy in Maputo ahead of the protest.

Both local and international organisations have alleged that the election process was heavily flawed. In a statement, the European Union (EU) said its observation mission “noted irregularities during counting and unjustified alteration of election results at polling stations and district level”.

It also said that EU observers were prevented from observing tabulation processes in some districts and provinces, as well as at a national level.

The bloc condemned the killings of opposition candidate Mondlane’s lawyer Elvino Dias, who had been preparing a legal challenge to the results, and Paulo Guambe, an official with the Podemos party who supported the independent presidential candidate.

The EU also called for respect of fundamental freedoms and political rights in Mozambique where nearly 50 years of Frelimo’s uninterrupted rule has engendered hostilities towards the status quo. This is mostly due to widespread poverty, which has been blamed on government corruption and mismanagement of the economy, coupled with the politicisation of state institutions.

Within Mozambique, Archbishop Inacio Saure of Nampula – the president of the country’s bishops’ conference – said the electoral process was marred by ballot-box stuffing and forged polling station result sheets, amongst other election malpractices.

When crowds first poured onto the streets on 25 October to protest the election outcome, the internet observatory Netblocks reported that there was a disruption to mobile internet traffic in Mozambique, a development it said was likely intentional to limit coverage of events on the ground.

Following those initial protests, opposition leader Mondlane piled pressure on the regime by announcing one week of demonstrations from 31 October to 7 November. He said that millions would march on the capital Maputo on the last day and made reference to a revolution.

A charismatic leader who rode on promises to deliver an honest, transparent and reformist government that would remove Mozambique from the list of poorest countries in the world, Mondlane appealed to young people in particular: two thirds of the country’s 32 million population are under the age of 25 and these increasingly highly-educated GenZ-ers are threatening the establishment.

Following his call for a major protest on 7 November, Netblocks issued an update that said  Mozambique had implemented restrictions to the social media and messaging platforms Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp.

According to Amnesty International, Mozambique is facing its worst crackdown on protests in years. The human rights organisation has also said that police have killed more than 20 people, and injured or arrested hundreds more, with security forces routinely trying to violently and unlawfully break up peaceful assemblies with tear gas, bullets and arbitrary arrests. Authorities have said that protestors have killed at least one police officer.

Speaking to Index on Censorship, Wilker Dias, the executive director of the Civil Society Platform for Electoral Monitoring (DECIDE) said the police had responded by killing those expressing their opposition to the allegedly-doctored election results.

Dias said among the irregularities they noted was the fact that when some people went to voting booths, they  were told they had already voted when in actual fact they had not done so. He said the killing of protesters across the country was methodical.

“The police are shooting people on the streets. We saw that. The shooting is not sporadic, it’s coordinated.The police are stealing the right to life, the right to free expression,” he said.

Dias said his organisation is lobbying for the  annulment of the election results in parts of Mozambique where there is evidence of tampering with the vote.

Mozambique-based journalist Elina Eciate, who works for local publication Jornal Rigor, told Index that she had witnessed the violence first hand and had interacted with some victims of police brutality in the district of Nacala-Porto in the Nampula province.

The journalist said some victims who had been shot were not receiving adequate medical attention.

“I managed to interview one person who was shot. He was discharged from hospital even though he needed medical assistance. The victim is 24 years old,” she said.

Eciate said after taking two bullets, police left him for dead. He was taken by locals to Nacala-Porto district hospital, but was discharged even though he still wanted medical help, she added.

“The doctors claimed they wanted to give space to other patients. They said he could continue with the treatment while at home. Even though he still wanted medical assistance, he was left to his own devices,”  Eciate said.

She said communication was difficult as the whole country is affected by internet restrictions.

The journalist said freedom of expression is simply enshrined in law but in practice people cannot freely express themselves in the African country.

“The internet still remains a problem. We are using alternatives, in this case [virtual private networks] VPN,” she added.

Mozambique’s government has heaped blame on Mondlane for civil disturbances in the country. The country’s interior minister Pascoal Ronda told local media that the opposition leader was hiding in South Africa but police have opened a criminal case against him.

Ronda said Mondlane was “manipulating public opinion” using social media. On the other hand Mozambique’s defence minister, Cristóvão Chume said 

protesters were preparing to march to Ponta Vermelha, the official residence of the country’s president, and added that if the escalation of violence continues, the armed forces would be called upon to “protect” the state.

Mondlane was not reachable for comment and there was no response to questions that Index sent to him via WhatsApp.

However, he has been updating his followers on Facebook. “My people, I’m here to announce that on the 7th I’m coming back to my country for the big march on Maputo City,” he wrote in one post.

In another post, Mondlane said in the face of constraints to freedom of speech, censorship and “the growing alienation of our media organs”, his Facebook page had become an essential tool for direct communication with the Mozambican public. 

In yet another post titled “Call to the Revolution of Mozambican People”, Mondlane declared:

“Brothers and sisters, our homeland calls for freedom and dignity and November 7 will be our collective cry for change! Countrymen from all provinces will be in Maputo to demand together what is rightfully ours.”

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