Voting, cheating – and killing in Mozambique

The murders come later presidential candidate Venâncio Mondlane, who ran as an independent with the support of Podemos, said last week’s elections were rigged. Before all the votes were counted, Frelimo candidate Daniel Chapo was comfortably ahead, with around 54% of the vote in the capital alone.

Of course, shouting “rigged” is now of rigor for anyone who loses an election anywhere these days. The problem for Chapo, however, is that allegations of vote buying, political intimidation and “ghosts” on the electoral roll in Frelimo strongholds have dogged the ruling party since 1994, when the first pluralist elections were held after the civil war against to Renamo.

Dias was preparing a draft party appeal against the election results, says veteran Mozambique expert Joseph Hanlon. Dias had said that his life and Mondlane’s were in danger.

In 2000, investigative journalist Carlos Cardoso, who was investigating a huge fraud at Mozambique’s large state bank, warned about what he called the “gangster faction” of Frelimo. Days later, as he left the newspaper office, two men shot at his car. His killers later claimed that the president’s son had paid for the scam, while the alleged fraudsters’ family fled to Dubai with the loot. Sound familiar?