(Bloomberg) -- Mozambique’s Constitutional Council said its judges have received death threats as they work to validate the outcome of last month’s disputed elections, which have sparked protests in which dozens of people have died.
The threats have arrived via private messages as well as posts on social media, Lúcia Ribeiro, president at the nation’s top court, said in a statement Monday, without saying who made them.
Mozambique is facing its most precarious post-election period since embracing democracy three decades ago. While the electoral commission announced the ruling party and its presidential candidate won with more than 70%, extending its 49-year rule, opposition candidate Venâncio Mondlane rejected the result and called for protests that have rocked the gas-rich nation.
At least 67 people had died by last week, said Plataforma Decide, a local observer group. Mondlane fled the country claiming to be in fear of his life, and it’s unclear if he’ll return to attend a meeting with the other presidential candidates that President Filipe Nyusi called at his office on Tuesday.
Ribeiro said the council is obliged to seek electoral truth and justice and — because its ruling cannot be appealed — it must be fair and constitutionally valid.
Mondlane and Podemos, the opposition party that backed him, have challenged the election outcome with the council. Local and international observer groups have raised concerns over election irregularities, including ballot-box stuffing and the manipulation of results.
The unrest that followed the vote has led to border closures, port terminal suspensions, and fears that a $20 billion liquefied natural gas project led by TotalEnergies SE in the country will face further delays.
A gas and energy investment conference scheduled for this week will now take place in February, to allow for a “secure and productive environment,” the organizers said Monday.
--With assistance from Matthew Hill.
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