Good afternoon. Opposition presidential candidate Venâncio Mondlane would like people to know that he is not trying to launch a “coup” against the Mozambican state, after figures in ruling party Frelimo and the government have suggested as much. Mondlane made the assertion as he called for a fourth phase of demonstrations over the results of last month’s election, in which he insists he won the presidential poll (see below).
The word “coup” and its Portuguese equivalent golpe have obvious connotations of illegitimacy, so it is not surprising Mondlane wants to shake it off; he prefers to use the more glorifying word “revolution”. Up to now, his words and the protests he has called for have certainly been somewhat ambiguous. He has not overtly asked for insurrectionist behaviour, such as the occupation of the presidential palace, and in his latest live broadcast, he insisted that all he wanted to do was compel the electoral authorities to correct the fraud in the election results, rather than (our words, not his) driving government ministers from their offices. It is worth remembering that we still do not have independent confirmation of who the rightful winner of the presidential election is, something Mondlane’s message yesterday implicitly acknowledged. While some protesters have been violent, for example burning Frelimo offices and attacking police and their homes, this has been sporadic and largely a response to police violence, rather than an attempt to overthrow the government.
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But at the same time, Mondlane has also shared videos of the protests in Sri Lanka which led to the president fleeing the country two years ago, and he has urged the security forces not to act unlawfully, with the implication that the government might give them unlawful orders to suppress demonstrations. Mondlane seems to want to exploit this ambiguity to encourage his supporters while trying to minimise excuses to arrest him for plotting to overthrow the state.
