Soldiers and police were patrolling Mozambique’s capital Maputo early Thursday ahead of a planned protest against election results seen by the opposition as fraudulent, AFP reporters said.
The southern African nation has been rocked by violence since an October 9 vote won by the Frelimo party, which has been in power for almost 50 years.
The city of more than one more million people was a ghost town on Thursday morning, with shops, banks, schools and universities closed.
A group of a dozen demonstrators, many wearing flip flops and one man wrapped in a Mozambican flag, gathered around 0700 GMT on one of the main streets before being told by a soldier to go home.
Frelimo’s Daniel Chapo won the presidential election with 71 percent of the vote, according to the electoral commission, while the main opposition candidate Venancio Mondlane came in second with 20 percent.
Mondlane, backed by the small Podemos party, who said results were false and that he won, called for a mass protest on Thursday.
Using social media, he has rallied supporters out onto the streets since the election in demonstrations that have turned violent in police crackdowns.
In an interview with AFP, the opposition leader, whose whereabouts are unknown, said he would not be present at the march due to concerns over his safety.
– At least 18 killed –
At least 18 protesters have been killed in post-electoral violence, according to Human Rights Watch. Local NGO the Centre for Democracy and Human Rights (CDD) said the death toll was 24.
A police officer was also killed in a protest at the weekend, Defence Minister Cristovao Chume told reporters Tuesday, warning the army could intervene “to protect the interests of the state”.
“There is an intention to change the democratically established power,” he said, amid fears that outgoing President Filipe Nyusi could declare a state of emergency.
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