Maputo, 23 Dec (AIM) – The streets of Maputo were deserted on Monday, ahead of the announcement of the definitive results of the general elections held on 9 October.
Once again, the person ruling the Maputo streets is exiled presidential candidate Venancio Mondlane, who has gangs of young men treating his every word as law.
Mondlane demanded that the entire country come to a standstill, so that all citizens have the opportunity to listen to the election results. And, in Maputo at any rate, this order for a general strike is being obeyed.
The Constitutional Council, the country’s highest body in matters of constitutional and electoral law, announced on Sunday that its chairperson, Lucia Ribeiro, will read out the results at 15.00. So citizens could have gone to work as normal in the morning – except that Venancio Mondlane ordered otherwise.
Teams from the independent television stations, STV and TV Sucesso, filmed the deserted streets. Pedestrians were moving freely, but, apart from emergency vehicles, Mondlane’s men were not allowing cars to drive through the city.
There was no attempt by the police to remove barricades or to allow traffic to flow normally. As has happened repeatedly over the past two months, the Mozambican state had surrendered control of many of the capital’s main streets to Mondlane.
Fearing renewed rioting, all commercial banks closed their Maputo branches on Monday. Most offices and formal sector shops were also closed, and even some of the city’s petrol stations have shut down. However, many informal stallholders continued to sell their wares.
Mondlane has alleged that the government wants to assassinate him. But Mondlane has been out of the country for the past two months. He is believed to be hiding somewhere in Europe, and from this hideout he broadcasts regularly to his followers using his Facebook page.
On Saturday he transmitted what he called his “testament”, once again claiming that he is the target of an assassination plot. He declared that he has lost everything but is continuing to fight against “the powerful”.
“If I die, the people will know what to do”, he wrote.
Mondlane insists that he won the presidential election, and that, if the Constitutional Council finds otherwise, there will be further disturbances, which he calls “Turbo V8”.
Although the decision on calling for more unrest will be his and his alone, Mondlane is trying to shift the blame to the Constitutional Council and to its chairperson in particular. “The fate of Mozambique, stability or violence, will drop from the mouth of Lúcia Ribeiro”, Mondlane declared.
Despite his insistent claims of victory, Mondlane has not presented any evidence. The key evidence is the polling station results sheets, and he has not published any of them. Neither has the CNE or Frelimo, so claims by any of the contestants can be taken seriously.
(AIM)
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