3 November 2009
Maputo — The Mozambican police says it is not concerned at the "political statements" made last week by Afonso Dhlakama, leader of Mozambique's main opposition party, the former rebel movement Renamo.
Last Thursday, speaking on his arrival in the northern city of Nampula, Dhlakama reacted to his defeat in the previous day's general elections by threatening that "Mozambique will burn", and suggesting that Renamo might "take power by force".
Asked about this at the weekly police press briefing in Maputo, the spokesperson for the police general command, Raul Freia, said "we are not concerned with political statements, but with aspects of public order and tranquility in the country".
When reporters insisted, Freia merely added that the police "are working to guarantee public order and tranquility for all citizens". He reiterated the police appeal for calm as the election results are confirmed
He noted that opposition parties are quite entitled to demonstrate peacefully. "Demonstration is also a right enshrined in the law", said Freia. "Now we are waiting for the announcement of the results. Then there will be the period for appeals, for those who do not agree with the results, all on the basis of the law".
Just as in 2004, Renamo has accused the police of playing an active role in electoral fraud. Then Renamo claimed that all over the country the police entered the polling stations in the middle of the night and switched the ballot boxes - a remarkable logistical feat that nobody else noticed.
Renamo cannot say the same this year, because the election only took place on one, rather than two days. Instead, the Renamo national spokesperson, Fernando Mazanga, told the independent TV channel, STV, that the police had gone from polling station to polling station voting multiple times.
No evidence for this was presented - and in principle nobody, policemen included, can vote more than once because immediately after voting the voter's index finger is dipped in indelible ink, precisely in order to prevent any one from voting twice.
There are about 20,000 policemen in Mozambique. Even if every one of them voted five or six times that would not account for the lead of over two million votes that the incumbent president, Armando Guebuza, has over Dhlakama.
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