Mozambique is at a “crucial moment”, the African nation’s main opposition leader Venancio Mondlane told AFP in an interview ahead of a protest he has called for later on Thursday.
The southern African nation has been rocked by violence since an October 9 vote won by the Frelimo party, which has been in power for almost 50 years.
Frelimo’s Daniel Chapo, 47, won the presidential election with 71 percent of the vote, according to the electoral commission, while Mondlane, who is backed by the small Podemos party, came in second with 20 percent.
The 50-year-old former radio presenter said the results were false and that he won, calling for a mass protest on Thursday.
“Our first objective… is certainly the restoration of electoral truth,” Mondlane told AFP on Zoom late on Wednesday. “We want the popular will expressed at the polls on October 9 to be restored.”
He said he was “waging a struggle” with “national” and “historical purpose”.
“People have realised that it wasn’t possible to bring profound change in Mozambique without taking risks” Mondlane said, and that “now they have to free themselves”.
The Mozambique Bar Association (OAM) has said there were “conditions for a bloodbath” on Thursday as heavy security presence was seen deployed across the capital, AFP reporters said.
AFP