Two consecutive assassinations of opposition figures shake Mozambique – Firstpost

Armed men in two vehicles chased the lawyer of Mozambique’s main opponent and a senior opposition official and shot them dead in their SUV late at night on a main avenue in the capital, their spokesman said on Saturday. party, in a brutal explosion of violence that shook a country where tensions were already high amid disputed elections.

The killings took place as the opposition party the two men were associated with prepared to contest the results of this month’s presidential election, which has given rise to new allegations of electoral fraud and repression of dissidence against the party in power for almost a year. 50 years old.

Elvino Dias, a lawyer and adviser to opposition presidential candidate Venancio Mondlane, was killed Friday night by gunmen who peppered his car with bullets in the port capital of Maputo, the opposition PODEMOS party said.

Paulo Guambe, a senior PODEMOS official and spokesperson, was also in the car with Dias and died in the shooting, the party said in a statement.

These murders are “clear new proof of the lack of justice to which we are all subjected,” PODEMOS said.

PODEMOS is a relatively new opposition party that challenged the 49-year rule of the Mozambique Liberation Front, or Frelimo, in elections on October 9.

Although Mondlane ran as an independent for president, he was supported by PODEMOS. Mondlane, PODEMOS and other opposition parties have accused Frelimo of electoral fraud and election rigging.

Frelimo candidate Daniel Chapo holds a clear lead in the presidential race, according to preliminary results. Mondlane was second behind Chapo in the count.

Final election results are expected to be announced next week and Chapo is expected to be announced as the winner to succeed President Filipe Nyusi, who served a maximum of two terms, taking power from left-wing Frelimo for half a century.

Dias was seen as a key figure in legal preparations to challenge the election results before the Constitutional Council, Mozambique’s top electoral court. Mondlane and PODEMOS had also called for a national strike and protests on Monday against the election results.

Adriano Nuvunga, director of the Mozambican human rights NGO Center for Democracy and Development, wrote on social media that Dias’ killing was a “political assassination” amid growing tensions.

Authorities did not immediately comment on the killings, widely seen in Mozambique as politically motivated.

Frelimo, in power in this southern African country since its independence from Portugal in 1975, has often been accused of electoral fraud, which it has always denied.

Rights groups have accused Mozambican authorities of cracking down on dissent in the run-up to elections and have also accused security forces of using lethal force to disperse peaceful protests. Police broke up a post-election march by Mondlane supporters in the central town of Nampula earlier this week. There has been a heavy police presence on the streets of Maputo for days.

While Frelimo is regularly accused of manipulation of elections, harassment of the opposition and arbitrary arrests of journalists, the assassination of leading political leaders would constitute a novelty “and a major escalation of violence”, estimates Marcelo Mosse, editor-in-chief of the independent online newspaper Carta. from Moçambique, wrote in a Saturday morning column.

The shooting occurred shortly before midnight on Joaquim Chissano Avenue, near the Russian Embassy, ​​according to a local resident, who said he heard the gunshots. The resident, who asked not to be identified, said he was close enough to smell gunpowder in the air after the shooting. He said he heard a steady sequence of about five gunshots followed a few seconds later by another series of five gunshots.

Videos posted on social media – and widely shared in Mozambique – showed a dark gray BMW SUV in the middle of the road with numerous bullet holes in the bodywork. People were gathered around the car shortly after the shooting, and some videos showed what appeared to be the bodies of two men, one of whom had blood on his chest, in the front seats. The other body was slumped.

The Mozambique Bar Association condemned the “barbaric murder” of Dias, who was a member. The organization said the assassination was “an attack on the legal profession, its independence, the rule of law and democracy,” and called for a protest march in all provinces.

Frelimo established a one-party state after independence, then waged a bloody 15-year civil war against rebel group Renamo. They signed a peace deal in 1992 and Renamo became the main opposition party after the country’s first democratic elections in 1994, but peace between them is fragile.

Mondlane was previously a member of the Renamo party before running for president as an independent and becoming the main opposition candidate.