Africa-Press – Mozambique. Mozambique’s Interior Minister said today in parliament that the police had seized 59 homemade explosives from those protesting against the results of the local elections, commenting that “the lethality” of the protests was incontrovertible.
“It should be noted that in these demonstrations, we registered a new phenomenon of the use of homemade explosive devices by protestors. Thus, 59 devices were seized, 55 of them in the city of Maputo and four in the city of Nampula. This is not civilization,” said Pascoal Ronda.
Ronda was speaking in response to a question from the Mozambican National Resistance (Renamo), the main opposition party, which accuses the Police of the Republic of Mozambique (PRM) of repressing protests against the results of the October 11 local elections because they were promoted by the opposition.
The Minister of the Interior considered “the lethality of these demonstrations is unquestionable”, maintaining that the authorities registered 130 protests against the electoral results, of which “25 were of a violent nature”.
Ronda said that persons unknown had detonated 12 explosive devices in the vehicle of the director of STAE [Technical Secretariat for Electoral Administration] of the municipality of Quelimane, Zambézia province.
Following the violent acts associated with the local elections, 237 persons were arrested, 149 in the province of Nampula, 33 in the province of Zambézia, 23 in the city of Maputo, 16 in the province of Niassa, 11 in the province of Sofala and five in the province from Tete.
“It is important to clarify that all arrests that occurred during the demonstrations resulted from violation of the law and not from any party affiliation,” Ronda emphasised.
One person lost his life in the city of Nacala and four police officers were injured, including one who had one of his arms amputated, Ronda added.
The minister also said that the disturbances had resulted in material damage to public and private property, including four ambulances.
Minister Ronda defended the police’s actions as aiming to protect protesters and public order, security and tranquillity, since the right to demonstrate should not come into “collision” with other fundamental rights.
Pascoal Ronda maintained that incidents related to local elections would have been worse without police intervention.
The main opposition party has been organising marches contesting the results of the October 11 elections, bringing together thousands of people to denounce the alleged ballot “mega-fraud”.
The sixth municipal elections in Mozambique took place in 65 municipalities across the country, including 12 new municipalities, which went to vote for the first time.
The results presented by the National Elections Commission (CNE) of Mozambique indicate a victory for the Front for the Liberation of Mozambique (Frelimo), the party in power, in 64 of the country’s 65 municipalities, and one for the Democratic Movement of Mozambique (MDM), the third largest party – Beira.
Under Mozambican electoral legislation, the results of the ballot must still be validated and proclaimed by the Constitutional Council.
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