Constitutional Council validates results of the October polls that extended Frelimo party’s half-century grip on power.
Mozambique’s top court has confirmed the governing party Frelimo’s victory in an October election which prompted massive protests by opposition groups who say the vote was rigged.
The Constitutional Council’s Monday ruling is likely to trigger further protests in the Southern African country of close to 35 million people which Frelimo has governed since independence from Portugal in 1975.
Provisional results from the electoral commission, which has not commented on allegations of fraud, showed Frelimo’s Daniel Chapo won the presidency by a landslide while the party increased its majority in parliament. The Constitutional Council validated the results on Monday.
Western observers have said the election was not free and fair. Frelimo has in the past denied vote-rigging accusations.
The post-election period has seen the biggest protests against Frelimo in Mozambique’s history. At least 130 people have been killed in clashes with police, according to the civil society monitoring group, Plataforma Decide.
The 47-year-old Chapo is likely to officially take over the presidency from Filipe Nysui whose second term ends on January 15. Chapo will be the country’s first president to be born after its independence.
Opposition leader Venancio Mondlane claims the October 9 vote was rigged in favour of Frelimo and that a separate count shows he won enough votes to take the office.
Mondlane, who has taken refuge abroad for fear of his safety, pledged to call for “a popular uprising” if the Constitutional Council approved Chapo’s victory.
“Difficult days will come,” said the 50-year-old, who appeals to disenchanted younger voters in a country marked by extensive poverty despite its abundant resources.
Tension was already mounting in the capital Maputo in advance of the court’s decision with many businesses shuttered. The main roads into the city centre were barricaded by police and access to the presidential palace and Constitutional Council office closed, reports said.
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