Cabeça de lista da Renamo para a Cidade de Maputo, Venâncio Mondlane, preside uma passeata na Cidade de Maputo em contestação dos resultados eleitorais divulgadas pela CNE. Foto de Santos Vilanculos
Maputo, 8 Dec (AIM) – Mozambique’s main opposition party, Renamo, has called for a general strike in Maputo city next Monday, as the latest stage in its campaign to reverse the results in the capital of the 11 October municipal elections.
The initial results, declared on 26 November by the National Elections Commission (CNE), were that the ruling Frelimo Party had won in Maputo. These results were blatantly fraudulent, and the Constitutional Council, the country’s highest body in matters of constitutional and electoral law, recalculated the results and took tens of thousands of votes from Frelimo and re-allocated them to the opposition parties, Renamo and the Mozambique Democratic Movement (MDM).
But this still left Frelimo in control of the municipal assembly, which meant that the Frelimo candidate, Razaque Manhique, would become the next mayor of Maputo.
Renamo said that, on the basis of its copies of the results sheets from all the Maputo polling stations, it had won a comfortable majority, and its candidate, Venancio Mondlane, should be the next mayor. A parallel vote count, undertaken by credible civil society bodies, also found that Renamo had won.
Announcing the general strike, Mondlane said on Thursday that this initiative had emerged as a result of the party’s earlier consultation with private sector actors and businesspeople, “which resulted in a positive assessment.”
“The stoppage of the movement of people and goods is due to begin this Monday, 11 December, throughout Maputo city and all citizens must stay at home and close all commercial establishments”, Mondlane said.
However, he insisted that the strike will be peaceful. Renamo has no intention of resorting to violence to close down activities in the city, he claimed.
The strike does not mean that Renamo has given up its tactic of mass demonstrations through the streets of the city. Indeed, Mondlane announced that there will be another march on Saturday, along the Maputo coast road.
The strike planned for Monday will be a test of Renamo’s strength in Maputo. It is one thing to ask people to go on a march, but quite another to suggest that they should lose a day’s wages.
(AIM)
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