Our correspondents in Angoche and Chimoio, in Nampula and Manica provinces respectively, reported acts of violence last Sunday (23 Apr), involving monitors from Frelimo and Renamo.

In Angoche, the violence began when Frelimo accused Renamo of clandestinely bringing a car with its members resident outside the municipal boundary to register as voters. According to our correspondents in Angoche, Renamo tried to remove Frelimo members from the queues. This disorganised the queues, which generated misunderstandings and physical assaults.

Our correspondent managed to film the confusion, but the Renamo members surrounded him and, threatening to beat him up, they obliged him to delete the video. Intervention by a police officer prevented our correspondent from being assaulted, but the video was erased.

A message attributed to the supervisor of the Inguri EPC registration post, where the incident occurred, said that the Renamo members and sympathisers threatened that the Frelimo Party secretary would be affected by a stroke within a week. In the midst of the argument, there were physical assaults, which resulted in partial damage to the printer used for the registration. The printer still prints, but the voter cards come out of the printer with a black stain.

The same message claims some of the Renamo sympathisers in that registration post came from other parts of Nampula province, such as Mozambique Island, the Coti Islands, Mogincual, Mogovolas and Moma.

After the incident, the chairperson of the Angoche District Elections Commission, Domingos Amisse, ordered that the registration be held behind closed doors. But this Monday, registration resumed, without problems. There were no injuries, only torn clothes.

In Chimoio, a Renamo monitor, named Augusto Macorreia, was attacked by police officers when he tried to stop the registration of individuals who did not live in the 7 April neighbourhood, because they supposedly resided outside of the municipal area.