Maputo, 24 Oct (AIM) – Albino Forquilha, president of PODEMOS (Optimistic Party for the Development of Mozambique), has called on the election management bodies to announce “fair results” of the general elections held on 9 October, in order to avoid further strikes.
On Monday, there were clashes between protesters and the police, following a general strike called by the independent presidential candidate, Venancio Mondlane, backed by Podemos, in order to protest against the murder of his lawyer Elvino Dias, and Paulo Guambe, election agent of Podemos.
On Tuesday, Mondlane, through his Facebook account, called for another general strike to take place on 24 and 25 October, claiming that “the general strike will be directed against the kidnappings that have been plaguing the country’s cities since 2011 and the fraudulent results of the general elections,” which the National Elections Commission (CNE) intends to announce this Thursday.
Speaking to reporters on Wednesday during the funeral of Dias and Guambe, Forquilha challenged the CNE to “effectively assess the challenges we filed in the districts and that, out of its own conscience, it should recognise that the results released do not correspond to the truth.”
“We call for electoral transparency, because this is essential for the peace of the country. There’s no point in saying that we should be calm and wait for the decisions of the competent institutions. If the electoral bodies follow the law, nobody will call for protests. Therefore, the opposite will always create problems”, he said.
According to Forquilha, if the CNE decides to hand over power to those who did not win, “we will fight for sovereignty to remain in the hands of the people, and not in the hands of those who count the votes or those who have weapons to silence us. If this is the case, we will always continue to fight.”
Also speaking at the funeral, Carlos Martins, head of the Mozambican Bar Association, condemned the murder of Elvino Dias declaring that Mozambique “has lost a true fellow countryman”.
“Our colleague did not enter this fight for the defense of rights and freedoms in order to obtain or defend material interests, but rather to defend the ideals of justice and truth, and in this unique exercise he left a work for posterity that has been written in the annals of this country’s history”, said Martins.
For his part, Jafete Fremo, head of the Mozambican Association of Judges, said that Dias, as a lawyer, was always in defense of the fundamental rights of citizens, which made him an interventionist lawyer who expressed his ideas freely, spontaneously and without reservation.
“They have silenced the voice of Elvino Dias. However, the Mozambican Association of Judges will not remain silent, it will not remain silent in relation to this murder, just as it did not in relation to the murders of Judge Alberto Santos Nkutumula and his wife in 1992, Judge Emília Simango in 1994, and Judge Diniz Sílica in 2014”, he said.
“How many more lives must be barbarously exterminated before we say ‘Enough!’ to this evil that is corroding our state?”, he asked. Hence the Mozambican Association of Judges is urging investigation so that “the moral and material authors of these murders may be hauled before the courts”.
A crowd of thousands gathered at the “Our Lady of the Rosary” parish in the outlying Maputo neighbourhood of Laulane to bid farewell to Elvino Dias, who was laid to rest in the nearby Michafutene cemetery.
Paulo Guambe’s funeral will be held on Thursday in his home district of Jangamo, in the southern province of Inhambane.
(AIM)
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