MADRID Jan. 13 (EUROPA PRESS) –
The Mozambican authorities have announced the arrest of six members of the opposition party and former rebel group Mozambican National Resistance (Renamo) whom they accuse of attempting to carry out acts of sabotage during the inauguration ceremony of Parliament and the inauguration of the president , Daniel Chapo, in the midst of the political crisis after the last elections.
The inauguration of the new parliamentarians will take place this Monday, while Chapo, from the governmental Front for the Liberation of Mozambique (Frelimo), is scheduled to be sworn in on Wednesday, when he will succeed the current president, Filipe Nyusi. .
The spokesperson for the Mozambican Police, Orlando Mudumane, has indicated that the six suspects were arrested in the town of Marracuene and has stated that all of them would have received funds from the opposition Venancio Mondlane, who claims that he defeated Chapo in the elections, to carry out “subversive actions.”
“All citizens are firmly asked to avoid these types of acts and to be alert and vigilant, since there is a lot of misinformation circulating with the aim of manipulating, instrumentalizing and fomenting conflicts and chaos in the country,” he said, according to reported the Mozambican state news agency, AIM.
However, one of the suspects, identified as Agostinho Alberto, has already rejected the accusations and stated that he went to Maputo to “welcome” Mondlane, who recently returned to Mozambique after several months in exile after proclaiming himself the winner of the presidential elections.
In this sense, he has stated in brief statements to the press that he is a member of the Optimist Party for the Development of Mozambique ( Podemos ) – the party that supported Mondlane’s candidacy – and has stressed that one member of the party gave him the money needed to pay for the bus to travel to Maputo.
Carlos Ntchica, another of the detainees and a former Army lieutenant colonel, has said that he was a member of Renamo and has assured that he joined Podemos due to tensions within the first party, which Mondlane abandoned to run as a candidate after the formation will support the candidacy of its leader, Ossufo Momade.
For his part, Renamo spokesperson, Marcial Macome, has stressed that the party will not participate in the inauguration of the new Parliament, arguing that “this ceremony is devoid of any solemn value, since it is an insult to the will of the Mozambicans.” , thus reiterating the party’s rejection of the results of the general elections.
Macome recalled that Momade has said on several occasions that “he does not recognize the president who emerged from these electoral results,” amid opposition complaints about alleged fraud to favor Frelimo in the parliamentary elections and its candidate, Chapo, in the presidential elections.
The electoral commission gave Chapo victory in the October 9, 2024 elections with 65 percent of the votes, well ahead of the 24 percent collected by Mondlane. The opponent, however, has stated that the data collected by his campaign gives him 53 percent of the ballots and has called for numerous protests since then.
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