Mozambique’s opposition has called for a general strike on Monday, with nationwide demonstrations to protest alleged fraud in the 9 October elections. While official results are still pending, the protests follow the recent assassination of two close associates of opposition leader and presidential candidate Venancio Mondlane - his lawyer Elvino Dias and Podemos party member Paulo Guamba.
Police clamped down on the opposition demonstration in central Maputo on Monday morning, RFI's correspondents report.
As presidential candidate Venancio Mondlane spoke to the press, police targeted his campaign headquarters with tear gas, forcing the opposition leader to flee, Lusa news agency has also reported.
The opposition had called for the strike and demonstrations on Saturday, the day when Mozambique learned that gunmen had killed the opposition lawyer and the party official after firing multiple rounds at a car in which they were travelling, rights groups said.
"They were brutally assassinated (in a) cold-blooded murder," Adriano Nuvunga, CDD director, told Reuters by telephone.
"The indications that around 10 to 15 bullets were shot, and they died instantly," he added, describing it as a "message" to opposition protesters planning to convene on Monday.
Mozambican civil society election observer group More Integrity said the attack happened in the Bairro Da Coop neighbourhood of the capital Maputo, killing Podemos lawyer Elvino Dias and party representative Paulo Guambe.
Human Rights Watch and the Mozambique's Centre for Democracy and Human Rights (CDD) also issued statements confirming the attack.
Rising tensions
The killings raised tensions ahead of protests against a disputed election result.
New opposition party Podemos and its presidential aspirant Venancio Mondlane reject provisional results showing a likely win for Frelimo - the party that has ruled Mozambique for half a century - and its candidate Daniel Chapo.
“The Mozambican defence and security forces committed this," Mondlane said. "We have the proof. The blood of two young men flowing now! All of us, we're going down the street. We will demonstrate with our placards."
Africa programme director at London-based international affairs think tank Chatham House, Alex Vines, called the killing a "serious escalation" that raised tensions ahead of Monday's strike.
The European Union and Mozambique's former colonial ruler Portugal condemned the killing and called for an investigation.
Later, in the evening, Frelimo's candidate Chapo condemned the attack as an "affront to the principles of democracy that we must all defend".
Mondlane's rise to become Mozambique's main challenger was a threat to Frelimo, but also to former official opposition party Renamo - once a rebel outfit backed by racist white regimes in South Africa and Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe) during the Cold War.
Lack of credibility
Western observers have cast doubt on the credibility of the poll, noting reports of vote buying, intimidation, inflated voter rolls and poor transparency in collation - problems that have marred most polls since Frelimo introduced democracy in 1994 after two decades in power.
Full results are expected this week, on 24 October, but many fear Monday's protest could turn bloody.
Mozambique's security forces have previously opened fire on protesters, including after last year's local elections, rights groups say.
For the president of Podemos, Albino Forquilha, the fight for electoral justice will continue.
“We are pressing effectively, using social media to convey our message," Forquilha told RFI Portuguese service, "in order to make it clear that we will win these elections and deserve exactly that victory."
To try to appease people's anger, the Mozambican interior minister, Pascoal Ronda, called for calm and ordered the opening of an investigation.
“The government requests the relevant institutions, in particular the National Criminal Investigation Service and the police, to conduct rapidly throwing light on these matters and of translating the authors to justice," he said.
(with newswires)
