On Sunday, one person was wounded by a stray bullet during clashes between police and members of the public during re-elections in Gurué, Zambezia, central Mozambique, the corporation said this Monday.
People blocked a public road to prevent the passage of police vehicles assigned to polling stations, set up barricades, and threw stones and fuel bottles and matches, Miguel Cayetano, a spokesman for the Police of the Republic of Mozambique (PRM), told Luse. ) in Zambezia.
Police used rubber bullets and tear gas to disperse the people, and, “not enough, as the population was at maximum rage,” the corporation “was forced to fire a real bullet,” the spokesman explained.
“A stray bullet hit the citizen in the leg, but he is out of danger,” said Miguel Cayetano, giving a positive assessment of the process.
However, the Center for Public Integrity (CIP), which monitors the election process, said the victim was shot in both legs and was “fighting for his life” in the intensive care unit of Guru Rural Hospital, indicating that a total of five people were injured. ., shot dead by police during the elections, four of whom were released by Monday morning.
“In addition to those injured by bullets, there are also people injured by police attacks,” the observer said in a summary note sent to the media, which also cited incidents of violence between opposition delegates in Marromeu, Sofala province. also in central Mozambique.
Police told Lusa they had no information about other people injured during the unrest, reiterating that the man who was hit by a stray bullet was “recovering and can speak normally.”
Mozambique’s rerun elections were tense, with process observers reporting shootings, arrests and alleged attempted fraud at the opening and closing of polling stations, mainly in the municipalities of Gurue and Marromeu.
In Nacala Porto, Nampula province, northern Mozambique, repeat elections took place calmly and peacefully, local media reported.
On Sunday, a total of 53,270 voters were called upon to repeat voting in 75 polling stations to choose new mayors in four municipalities where the elections were not recognized by the Constitutional Council of Mozambique (CC) due to irregularities.
The re-voting on 11 October took place on 18 tables in Nacala Porto (province of Nampula), three in Milange and 13 in Gurué (Zambezia) and on all 41 tables in Marromeu (Sofala).
Municipal elections held on October 11 were strongly contested by the opposition and civil society, who condemned the alleged “mega-fraud.”
Renamo, the largest opposition party, filed an appeal to stop the repeat of these elections in these municipalities, but to no avail.
Current legislation establishes that if elections at one or more polling stations are declared invalid, “the corresponding electoral acts are repeated until the second Sunday after the decision of the Constitutional Council.”
On 24 November, the Central Committee of Mozambique declared the Mozambique Liberation Front (Frelimo) the winner of the 11 October municipal elections in 56 municipalities against the previous 64 declared by the CNE, with Renamo winning four, and ordered elections to be repeated in four others.
According to the ruling, approved unanimously and read by the President of the Constitutional Court, Counselor Judge Lucia Ribeiro, Frelimo maintained its victory in the country’s two main cities, Maputo and Matola, in which Renamo claimed victory, despite cutting some 60,000 people. votes – the total number of votes allocated to the party in power.
Author: Lusa
Source: CM Jornal
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