(Bloomberg) -- Mozambique’s main opposition leader called for another seven days of protests against what he’s called fraudulent elections, a move that threatens to extend weeks of unrest that has left dozens dead.
Fresh demonstrations should start Dec. 4 and run from 8 a.m. local time until 3:30 p.m. each day, when all vehicles should come to a standstill, Venâncio Mondlane said in a live stream Monday. He also proposed halting all flights in the southern African nation.
Any further upheaval will to add to the economic pain Mozambique has endured since the Oct. 9 vote that extended the governing party’s 49-year rule. Borders have been closed and port operations interrupted, while there are fears of further delays to a planned $20 billion natural-gas export project led by TotalEnergies SE.
Mondlane also called for the closure of the ruling party’s offices across the southeast African nation and urged parents not to send their children to school.
Police have clamped down on the protests with live bullets and teargas. An armored military vehicle ran over a woman last week, drawing condemnation from foreign missions in Mozambique, including the US and UK.
At least 76 people have died and more than 3,000 people have been arrested since the protests began on Oct. 21, according to Platform Decide, a local monitoring group.
The electoral authorities announced the election tallies Oct. 24, which gave Mondlane 20% of the vote and Daniel Chapo of the ruling Frelimo almost 71%. Local and foreign observers raised several concerns, including that tallies may have been manipulated. Mondlane and the party that backed him challenged the outcome in court.
The Constitutional Council has yet to validate the final results and last month implied it needed to do so by Dec. 23.
(Updates with call to close ruling-party offices in fourth paragraph. A previous version of this story corrected the date of the planned protests.)
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