Election Observer Murdered in Mozambique

A leading election observer has been gunned down in Mozambique’s Gaza Province, less than a week before voters are due to head to the polls.

Anastancio Matavel, an official from the Mozambican electoral observation platform Sala de Paz, was shot dead following a training session with other national observers.

The assailants reportedly followed Mr. Matavel’s car before firing ten rounds.

In attempting to flee the scene, the attackers were involved in a car accident, resulting in the deaths of two of them.

A third man was arrested by police.

Mozambique has been marred by recent violence in the run up to the election on 15th October.

A peace deal has recently been struck, although the group Human Rights Watch is concerned it will not hold.

A researcher for the group, Zenaida Machado, said on Twitter that the “[k]illing of a leading election observer this morning [Monday 7th October], 8 days to the voting day, is the latest of many incidents since the start of the campaign.  Silence of the Electoral Commission and the inability of the police to stop it, are fuelling violence and impunity”.

The impending election is seen as particularly significant given they are the first since the death of opposition leader Afonso Dhlakama.