Mozambique Elections

The Democratic Alliance Coalition (CAD) today announced two peaceful demonstrations for Wednesday against its exclusion from the October 9 general elections, a source from the group told Lusa.

“We will hold two peaceful demonstrations on Wednesday, one at 12:00 and the other at 20:00. Every citizen should demonstrate wherever they are” against the exclusion of the CAD, and the “partisanship of the Constitutional Council”, said Luís Mariquel, national coordinator of communication and image of the CAD and assistant to Venâncio Mondlane, their presidential candidate.  According to the official, at the 12:00 demonstration people should “paint their hands black and hold them up high wherever they are” and at 20:00 they should gather in a local square “to light candles for five minutes”, symbolising the “death of justice and democracy in Mozambique”.

“This time we are not going to march – we want to avoid confusion. It will be a very peaceful demonstration,” Mariquel said, referencing episodes of violence recorded in some recent marches in the country.

“Let it be clear here that the central and northern provinces are simply waiting for the whistle to start blowing up the country, so this is [also] a way of damping people’s spirits down,” he added.

Thursday, the Mozambican Constitutional Council (CC) definitively excluded the CAD, which supports the presidential candidacy of Venâncio Mondlane, from the general elections of October 9. In the ruling, given in response to an appeal filed by the CAD regarding the exclusion of the candidacy previously decided by the National Electoral Commission (CNE), the CC declared null and void the CNE’s decision of May 9, which accepted the registration of the Democratic Alliance Coalition (CAD) for electoral purposes. On Sunday, Venâncio Mondlane called for demonstrations, asking his supporters to paint their hands black as a sign of the “funeral of justice and democracy”, and saying he would not back down, because he is “the people’s candidate”.

“I am a survivor, like many of us here,” Mondlane told supporters waiting for him at Maputo International Airport, where he landed after a tour of Europe.

On Friday, the CAD accused the CC of violating the Constitution, saying that the exclusion of their party from the October elections was political persecution for its support of Venâncio Mondlane’s candidacy. “We signed up and the decision was accepted and published in the Official Gazette. When they realised that Venâncio Mondlane’s candidacy was supported by the CAD, the problems began. That problem is political persecution,” president of CAD Manecas Daniel told reporters in Maputo. Mozambique will hold presidential elections on 9 October, simultaneously with legislative elections and elections for governors and provincial assemblies.