(Bloomberg) -- Mozambican opposition leader Venâncio Mondlane is hurtling toward a confrontation with the state, as he called for street protests after his legal adviser was gunned down.
He’d already challenged the attorney general to arrest him after it warned him against prematurely claiming to have won Oct. 9 elections and inciting unrest. The weekend killing of his lawyer, Elvino Dias, by unknown gunmen added fuel to an already tense standoff.
The fiery preacher and former lawmaker urged his supporters to paralyze the southeast African nation on Monday by joining a nationwide protest against what he described as a fraudulent vote. Mondlane on Saturday warned police not to try and block their planned march starting from the murder scene in the capital, Maputo.
Preliminary official results showed the ruling party’s candidate Daniel Chapo leading the race for the presidency and Mondlane in second place. Multiple observer organizations have raised questions over the credibility of the election process.
Police and military units have already positioned themselves around Maputo ahead of the planned demonstration. Mozambique has a young population with limited opportunities and little to lose — the average age is 17 and about three in four people live on less than $2.15 per day — but Human Rights Watch has warned that the authorities have a tendency to use lethal force and arbitrary arrests to quell unrest.
While there is a risk of violent confrontation, the protests are unlikely to be big enough to have the election annulled or force a recount, according to André Thomashausen, an international law professor emeritus who helped draft the 1992 peace accord that ended Mozambique’s 16-year civil war.
An engineer by profession, Mondlane describes himself as a reluctant politician and pastor, and has pledged to ensure Mozambicans derive more benefit from the gas-rich nation’s natural resources. He drew large crowds of mostly young people to his campaign rallies and his YouTube channel has nearly 150,000 subscribers.
“He has a fantastic command and control over the powers of the social media. He knows how to use them,” said Thomashausen. “He can even rap.”
Scenes of Mondlane leading a procession through the streets crowded with his supporters in the northern city of Nampula last week were being livestreamed when the sound of gunfire cut the event short. Amnesty International said police officers shot at the crowd, wounding at least one person.
“Mozambican police must respect people’s right to peaceful assembly,” Khanyo Farise, Amnesty’s deputy regional director for East and Southern Africa, said in a statement Friday. “Shooting live bullets at a peaceful political rally and arbitrarily detaining opposition supporters is a gross violation of both Mozambican and international human rights law.”
Public Order
The defense and security forces will take all measures to prevent threats to public order, police spokesman Orlando Mudumane said. The police also warned citizens to refrain from participating in illegal demonstrations.
Mondlane, 50, who is popularly known as VM7 and stood as an independent candidate backed by the small Podemos party, said a parallel tallying of votes by his campaign showed he had won an “unequivocal” victory and the official count was fraudulent.
Provisional results published by state-owned newspaper Noticias showed Chapo — the candidate for the Mozambique Liberation Front, which has led the country since independence almost five decades ago — had more than 70% support. Mondlane had less than 20%.
The electoral authorities, who have until Oct. 24 to announce the final results, have said aggrieved parties have the right to appeal the outcome in court.
--With assistance from Borges Nhamire and Paul Richardson.
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