MAPUTO: Thousands of people gathered Wednesday outside Mozambique’s capital to bury the murdered lawyer of an opposition candidate, as tensions grew ahead of the imminent release of election results.
Venancio Mondlane has called for 25 days of protests over the killing of his attorney as results from the October 9 ballot likely on Thursday were expected to show the ruling Frelimo party winning.
Mondlane warned the results would be “false” and said his lawyer Elvino Dias was killed by the security forces alongside another ally, Paulo Guambe, as they were preparing a case to contest the vote.
Before Dias’ burial at Michafutene cemetery outside Maputo, large crowds were seen assembling at a church, according to an AFP reporter present.
In a message on Facebook, Mondlane, who accused security forces of ambushing the duo in the early hours of Saturday and shooting at them 25 times, said he would unleash “25 days of terror” in reprisal.
Police said it had launched an investigation into the killings, while Frelimo party which has been in power for 49 years “vehemently” condemned the “macabre act.”
The government of Mozambique has called for calm as the country awaits official results.
Mondlane was among a group of protesters tear gassed by police on Monday after he had called for a general strike to protest against Dias’ murder as well as perceived electoral fraud.
Election observers from the EU have also raised concern about the legitimacy of the polls, noting “irregularities during counting and unjustified alteration of election results at polling station and district level.”
Initial indications of a low turnout in the coastal country of some 33 million people could further erode the vote’s credibility.
President Filipe Nyusi, 65, is stepping down after his two terms allowed by the constitution but his party’s candidate, 47-year-old Daniel Chapo, was widely expected to win.
Other presidential candidates included Ossufo Momade, 63, of the Renamo party, and Lutero Simango, 64, of the Mozambique Democratic Movement.
While Renamo has traditionally been the main opposition group, the emergence of Mondlane and the Podemos party was a new development in this election.
“Mondlane and Podemos have leveraged social media to connect with Mozambique’s large youth population who are seeking a change to the status quo,” said Emilia Columbo of the DC based Center for Strategic and International Studies.
Thousands rally in Mozambique ahead of election results
https://arab.news/yjh2t
Thousands rally in Mozambique ahead of election results
- Opposition candidate Venancio Mondlane has called for 25 days of protests over the killing of his attorney
- The government of Mozambique has called for calm as the country awaits official election results
End of US-Russia nuclear pact a ‘grave moment’: UN chief
- Guterres urged Washington and Moscow “to return to the negotiating table without delay and to agree upon a successor framework”
UNITED NATIONS, United States: UN chief Antonio Guterres on Wednesday urged the United States and Russia to quickly sign a new nuclear deal, as the existing treaty was set to expire in a “grave moment for international peace and security.”
The New START agreement will end Thursday, formally releasing both Moscow and Washington from a raft of restrictions on their nuclear arsenals.
“For the first time in more than half a century, we face a world without any binding limits on the strategic nuclear arsenals of the Russian Federation and the United States of America,” Guterres said in a statement.
The UN secretary-general added that New START and other arms control treaties had “drastically improved the security of all peoples.”
“This dissolution of decades of achievement could not come at a worse time — the risk of a nuclear weapon being used is the highest in decades,” he said, without giving more details.
Guterres urged Washington and Moscow “to return to the negotiating table without delay and to agree upon a successor framework.”
Russia and the United States together control more than 80 percent of the world’s nuclear warheads but arms agreements have been withering away.
New START, first signed in 2010, limited each side’s nuclear arsenal to 1,550 deployed strategic warheads — a reduction of nearly 30 percent from the previous limit set in 2002.
It also allowed each side to conduct on-site inspections of the other’s nuclear arsenal, although these were suspended during the Covid-19 pandemic and have not resumed since.
