Gunmen kill two opposition figures in Mozambique ahead of election protests

By Tim Cocks

JOHANNESBURG (Reuters) – Gunmen killed a Mozambique opposition lawyer and a party official on Saturday after repeatedly shooting at a car they were traveling in, rights groups said, escalating tensions in the approach of demonstrations against a disputed electoral result.

The new opposition party Podemos and its presidential candidate Venancio Mondlane reject provisional results showing a likely victory for Frelimo – the party that has ruled Mozambique for half a century – and its candidate Daniel Chapo.

They called a national strike on Monday.

Mozambican civil society election observer group More Integrity said the attack occurred in the Bairro Da Coop neighborhood of the capital Maputo, killing Podemos lawyer Elvino Dias and party representative Paulo Guambe.

Human Rights Watch and Mozambique’s Center for Democracy and Human Rights (CDD) also issued statements confirming the attack.

“They were brutally murdered (in a) cold-blooded murder,” Adriano Nuvunga, director of the CDD, told Reuters by telephone.

“It appears that about 10 to 15 bullets were fired and they died instantly,” he added, describing it as a “message” to opposition protesters who were planning to rally Monday.

A Frelimo spokesperson did not respond to requests for comment.

The European Union and Mozambique’s former colonial ruler, Portugal, condemned the killing and called for an investigation.

Mondlane’s rise to become Mozambique’s main challenger posed a threat to Frelimo, but also to the former official opposition party Renamo, once a rebel group supported by the white racist regimes of South Africa and of Rhodesia (Zimbabwe) during the Cold War.

Alex Vines, director of the Africa program at the London-based international affairs think tank Chatham House, called the killing a “serious escalation” that has increased tensions in the run-up to Monday’s strike.

Western observers have questioned the credibility of the vote, noting reports of vote buying, intimidation, inflated voter lists and poor transparency in tabulation – problems that marred most polls since Frelimo introduced democracy in 1994, after two decades in power.

Full results are expected on October 24, but many fear Monday’s protest could turn bloody. Mozambique’s security forces have opened fire on protesters, particularly after local elections last year, rights groups say.

(Reporting by Tim Cocks; additional reporting by David Lewis in Nairobi; editing by David Holmes)