Angola’s main opposition party, UNITA, on Monday condemned the double assassination in Mozambique of two leading political campaigners, calling on the authorities in that country to bring those responsible to justice and on international institutions to “severely” punish governments that carry out constitutional coups.
In a statement posted on the Facebook page of the UNITA leader, Adalberto Costa Júnior, the party expresses “indignation and concern” at the murders of Elvino Dias, a legal advisor to Mozambican presidential candidate Venâncio Mondlane in the elections of 9 October, and of Paulo Nguambe, a representative of Podemos party that backed him. The statement stresses that these “sad events” are believed to have been “disgustingly politically motivated” because they took place during an election period.
“The leadership of UNITA therefore condemns, in the strongest possible terms, this macabre act that casts a shadow over the whole of Mozambican society,” reads the statement, in which UNITA declares its solidarity with organisations inside and outside Mozambique “defending democracy and electoral transparency” and which join “the cry of the Mozambican people and demand that electoral truth be absolutely respected.”
The Angolan opposition party calls on Mozambique’s judicial authorities to do their job “without any pressure” and bring to justice the perpetrators of the crime and, above all, those who ordered it.
UNITA adds that it “encourages” Mondlane and the Podemos party to continue the “struggle for freedom and democracy in Mozambique.”
It also draws the attention of international institutions to the “need to severely punish governments that practise constitutional coups, controlling the courts and the National Electoral Commissions (CNE), subverting the electoral truth, as a way of maintaining power.”
UNITA, which won 44% of the vote in the 2022 elections that were once more won by the the MPLA, which has been in power in Angola 1975, albeit with its worst result ever, complained in the wake of those polls of electoral fraud. However, Angola’s Constitutional Court found that there was insufficient evidencce to substantiated those allegations and validated the official results.
Mozambican police on Monday dispersed participants in peaceful marches called by Mondlane following the murder of his two aides.
The police had confirmed to Lusa on Saturday that the car in which Elvino Dias, Mondlane’s lawyer, and Paulo Guambe, a member of Podemos, the party that backed Mondlane in his election campaign, were travelling when they were shot dead, had been “ambushed”.
The crime took place on Avenida Joaquim Chissano, in the centre of the capital. According to the police, a woman in the back seat of the car was also shot and taken to hospital.
The general elections in Mozambique on 9 October included the seventh presidential elections – for which the current head of state, Filipe Nyusi of Frelimo, who has reached the two-term limit, was not standing – at the same time as legislative elections and elections for provincial assemblies and governors.
The CNE has 15 days to announce the official results, a date that falls on 24 October. After that, the Constitutional Council is to proclaim the results, after concluding the analysis of any appeals that might be submitted; there is no deadline set for this.
