Maputo, 6 Dec (AIM) – Unknown arsonists set on fire the Murupelane primary school in the northern Mozambican port city of Nacala early on Wednesday morning.
Local residents and the secretary of the Murupelane neighbourhood, cited in the latest issue of the bulletin on the municipal elections published by the anti-corruption NGO, the Centre for Public Integrity (CIP), confirmed that the school had been set ablaze.
The Constitutional Council, the country’s highest body in matters of constitutional and electoral law, ordered the repetition of the Nacala elections in 17 polling stations, nine of which operate in the Murupelane school.
The National Elections Commission (CNE), in its declaration of the preliminary results, claimed that the ruling Frelimo Party had won in Nacala, but the main opposition party, Renamo, said the CNE’s result was fraudulent.
Clearly the Constitutional Council also believed the Nacala result was suspect, hence the instruction to re-run the election in 18 polling stations, where 12,893 voters are registered – enough to change the result.
The repeat election will be held next Sunday, 10 December. Speaking at a Maputo press conference on Wednesday, the CNE spokesperson, Paulo Cuinica, said the damage to the Murupelane school was not enough to prevent the election from taking place.
He said that, after the fire damage had been cleaned up, classrooms would be converted into polling stations as normal.
Nobody has claimed responsibility for the fire, but suspicion will clearly fall on a radical faction of Renamo which is locked in a bitter conflict with the Renamo leadership.
According to CIP, local Renamo militants in Nacala are threatening to prevent the repeat election from taking place. They wanted new elections held in the entire municipality and not in just some of the polling stations.
They claimed it made no sense for Renamo leader Ossufo Momade to claim the elections were fraudulent, and then accept a new election in just part of the city.
These militants warned that, if the authorities try to hold elections on Sunday, there will be violence, and urged people living near the schools where the polling stations will be installed to leave.
This type of militancy is not welcomed by Momade, who is accused of doing dirty deals with Frelimo. The Renamo mayor of Nacala, Raul Novinte, has gone to Maputo to negotiate with Momade.
But feelings in Nacala are running high. A message from Renamo supporters, cited by CIP, said “our patience has run out. This place is going to become Maringue” (a reference to the district in the central province of Sofala where Renamo had its headquarters during the closing years of the war of destabilisation).
“We were keeping quiet”, said the message, “but we are going to show our hearts on 10 December. Now we are saying the following – you who live near the schools, we’re telling you to leave, because large amounts of tear gas have been prepared for use on Sunday”.
(AIM)
Pf/ (491)
