MAPUTO: Mozambique blocked social media access for a second time in a week Thursday, a global internet watchdog said, as the opposition called for nationwide strikes over a disputed presidential election. Streets in the normally bustling capital, Maputo, were deserted and many shops were shuttered, an AFP reporter saw. Police were out in force in at least two northern cities where demonstrations were getting under way. It is the third wave of action since the ruling Frelimo party won an October 9 vote that opposition parties and electoral observers said was flawed.

Access to WhatsApp, Facebook and Instagram, platforms often used by opposition leader Venancio Mondlane to rally his supporters, was down. “We can confirm social media restrictions have been imposed in Mozambique,” London-based internet watchdog NetBlocks said. Last Friday, a temporary internet blackout was introduced, a day after presidential and parliamentary election results were announced by the electoral commission and protests were violently suppressed. NetBlocks said at the time that there was a “near-total disruption to mobile internet connectivity in Mozambique”.

Daniel Chapo, 47, representing Frelimo, the party in power for 49 years, was declared winner of the presidential race, with almost 71 percent of votes. Mondlane, 50, of the small Podemos party, came second with 20 percent but said the results were “false”. After the announcement, police cracked down on opposition supporters who took to the streets, using “live bullets, tear gas and (making) arbitrary arrests,” according to Amnesty International. “Authorities must immediately halt their escalating assault on the rights to freedom of expression and peaceful assembly,” the rights’ group Deputy Director for East and Southern Africa Khanyo Farise said.

Human Rights Watch (HRW) said that at least 11 people were killed by security forces and more than 50 others were injured on October 24 and 25. Police did not respond to HRW and Amnesty’s statements but previously said that 20 people were injured in post-electoral violence and that two people had died, without giving details. A police investigation was opened into Mondlane following the unrest and his calls for “25 days of terror”. His whereabouts remain unknown. But the former radio host-turned-politician again called for a nationwide strike from October 31 to November 7. 

Call to ‘paralyze’ country

It was unclear if his call to “paralyze” the country from northern Cabo Delgado to Maputo, more than 2,400 kilometers away would be heeded, but the capital was a ghost town on Thursday. Demonstrators also started taking to the streets in the northern cities of Nampula and Tete, where a strong police presence could be seen, according to an AFP reporter. Police sent out text messages on Wednesday evening and Thursday morning, including to an AFP reporter, instructing residents not to participate in acts of “sabotage”.

Police chief Bernardino Rafael blamed Podemos for inciting violence and said “a seven-day demonstration is a threat to the life of the country because we will be paralyzed and unable to work.” The public prosecutor also issued a statement saying that while it was a “fundamental right” to protest, “anyone who... causes material or personal damage shall be punished”. Podemos president Albino Forquilha responded to police accusations, saying he would “do everything to ensure that there is no violence” during the planned week-long strike “but we need to fight for justice”. 

Election observers, including from the European Union, have noted serious flaws before, during and after the vote. Mondlane and the Podemos party, which overshadowed the main opposition Renamo party in the election, on Sunday appealed to the Constitutional Court for a ballot recount. The judicial body has since requested results sheets and minutes of polling stations in six provinces and Maputo from the electoral commission, giving them eight days to produce the documents. — AFP