Africa-Press – Mozambique. The leader of Renamo, Mozambique’s main opposition party, on Thursday warned of “chaos and social upheaval” due to what he claims is fraud in the local elections, claiming a “convincing and unequivocal” victory for the party in the vote.
“The voting process yesterday, 11 October this year, is once again leading the country into chaos and social upheaval,” said Ossufo Momade, speaking at a press conference at the headquarters of the Mozambican National Resistance (Renamo) in Maputo.
“We, Renamo, won these elections convincingly and unequivocally,” said Momade.
The leader of the main opposition party accused the Mozambique Liberation Front (Frelimo) of having directed a strategy of wrongdoing to distort the results of the local elections.
In the municipalities of Lichinga, Cuamba, Lago, Marrupa, Mandinga and Mecanhelas, in Niassa province, northern Mozambique, thousands of voters were prevented from voting because the names on the electoral roll given to the political party agents were not in alphabetical order, making it difficult to consult them, accused Momade.
“Curiously, the lists distributed at the polling stations [by polling station agents] were in alphabetical order,” said Ossufo.
In these municipalities, he continued, from 22:00 – four hours after the polls closed – all the opposition parties’ candidate delegates were expelled from the polling stations by the Police of the Republic of Mozambique (PRM).
The Renamo leader said that in the municipality of Quelimane, in the centre of the country, “there was an excessive number of phantom electoral observers who, in the dead of night, went around the polling stations and inside organised the queues and received cards from unknown voters” in order to vote illegally.
In this municipality, from 3pm on 11 October, several Renamo candidate delegates were compulsorily removed from the polling stations, allegedly because they had false credentials, during the counting and tabulation of votes, accused Ossufo Momade.
The PRM used gunfire and tear gas at almost every polling station in the city, he said.
Renamo accused the PRM commander of Maganja da Costa municipality, in Zambézia province, in the centre of the country, of “illegally and arrogantly” breaking into the warehouse of the Technical Secretariat for Electoral Administration (STAE) and ordering the removal of all voting material, including ballot boxes.
In Nampula province, in the north of the country, the PRM carried out arbitrary and illegal actions against Renamo candidate delegates and fired tear gas at polling stations to intimidate and disperse all those who opposed these criminal acts, continued Ossufo Momade.
In the municipalities of Matola and Maputo city, in southern Mozambique, “in a shameful and cowardly way, when the results were giving victory to Renamo, the ruling party ordered the non-issuance and non-delivery of minutes of public notices to the Renamo party’s candidate delegates”, he accused.
On the other hand, Momade continued, police officers were present at the polling stations and the electricity supply was deliberately cut off in several areas.
“It is clear that this behaviour by the ruling party shows desperation and the loss of any legitimacy to govern Mozambique,” said Ossufo Momade.
The Renamo leader further accused the presidents of the polling stations of having refused the complaints legally lodged by the opposition list agents against the alleged offences.
“I’m not afraid of war,” he emphasised, stressing the risk of a “popular uprising”.
Mozambican voters were asked to choose 65 new mayors and elected members of municipal councils, including in 12 new municipalities approved by the Cabinet in October 2022, which join 53 existing ones, for a total of 1,747 members to be elected.
In the 2018 municipal elections, Frelimo won in 44 of the 53 municipalities and the opposition in only nine, Renamo in eight and the Mozambique Democratic Movement (MDM) in one.
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