Good afternoon. Another day has passed in which people have been killed protesting on the streets, and the Mozambican government has sought to frame the post-election protests as a public order problem and not a political one. Addressing foreign diplomats yesterday, foreign minister Verónica Macamo characterised the protesters as vandals causing destruction, and accused opposition presidential candidate Venâncio Mondlane of damaging the economy and discouraging investors. She also defended the integrity of the elections, and tried to claim that foreign election observers had initially described them as free and fair, before changing their minds and belatedly coming up with stories about ballot-stuffing.
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From the Zitamar Live Blog:
Much of what Macamo said was demonstrably untrue or misleading. Foreign observers (apart from compliant African ones) did not say the elections were free and fair, and it is not true that Frelimo does not control the electoral authorities: it has a de facto majority on the National Elections Commission, for example.
But the purpose of Macamo’s statement was not really to convince the diplomats that the elections really were free and fair, as if any of them, after all the evidence of election fraud that has emerged, could believe that. It was to show that the government has the situation firmly under control, is not going anywhere, and remains a reliable partner. If foreign countries were to start thinking that the country was descending into chaos, that really might put investment and donor funding in danger. It is striking that the regime of ruling party Frelimo is more interested in engaging with diplomats than it is in winning over its own people, for whom tear gas and live ammunition remain the main method of communication.
