By Lehlohonolo Lehana.
At least 21 people have been killed in unrest after Mozambique’s top court on Monday confirmed Frelimo’s victory in the election, the country’s interior minister Pascoal Ronda said late on Tuesday.
The capital Maputo was like a ghost town on Christmas Eve, with almost all businesses shut and people staying at home to avoid being caught up in the worst unrest in the city since Frelimo rose to power at independence in 1975.
A total of “236 acts of serious violence were reported” since Monday across the Portuguese-speaking country, in which at least 25 people were wounded, including 13 police officers, he said.
Seventy-eight people have been arrested so far and security measures have been tightened across the country, Ronda told public broadcaster TVM. “The armed forces will increase their presence in critical and key points,” he said.
Frelimo has been repeatedly accused by opponents and election observers of rigging votes. It has denied the accusations.
As soon as the top court announced the governing party’s Daniel Chapo had won the presidential election, supporters of the opposition candidate, Venancio Mondlane, began protesting on Monday night.
Protesters have been accused of attacking and vandalising police stations, petrol stations, banks and other public facilities.
Mozambique has seen violent protests since late October when the electoral authorities declared 47-year-old Chapo the winner of the presidential election.
More than 130 people have been killed since October 21, according to human rights and civil society groups that have also accused Mozambican security forces of using excessive violence to quell the protests.
After Monday’s announcement by the Constitutional Council, Mondlane asked his supporters on social media to brace themselves for “difficult days ahead”.
“History is made of thorny, rocky moments, but the truth is that victory is guaranteed for all of us,” Mondlane wrote on Facebook.
Mondlane fled Mozambique after accusing police of threatening behaviour, and two of his aides were shot dead in October.
The 50-year-old evangelical pastor contested the election as an independent after breaking away from the main opposition Renamo party. His support is strongest among young people, many of whom are unemployed and demanding change.