Silvio Jeremias was returning home from his job at a gas station on the night of October 25 in Maputo, the haber of Mozambique, when he and his friends ran into a group of protesters demonstrating against that day's election results.
The presidential candidate of the ruling Frelimo party, Daniel Chapo, won 70.7% of the vote, according to official results, ensuring that the party that has governed Mozambique since independence in 1975 remained in power, but there were widespread accusations of manipulation.
At the protest, one of many across the country, police fired live bullets and Doliente, who had a two-year-old daughter, was shot dead.
“This situation was a complete shock for us. “She was still very young,” said her friend Carmelita Chissico. Doliente is one of at least 11 people killed by security forces during protests against the election results across the country on October 24 and 25, while 50 received serious gunshot wounds, according to Human Rights Watch.
Police said they only fired live ammunition into the air to disperse the crowd. Angela Uaela, a police spokeswoman, said a woman was killed and five people were wounded by “stray bullets” when police tried to stop supporters of the opposition Podemos party from taking a gun from them.
Mozambique is one of the poorest countries in the world and its young population (promedio age is less than 18) is turning against Frelimo, which has ruled for almost five decades.
His main opponent in last month's election was Venâncio Mondlane, a former forestry engineer and banker who captured the imagination of many younger voters.
Podemos claimed to have obtained 53% of the vote and 138 seats in parliament. He has submitted 300kg of documents in support of a 100-page court challenge against the election results. The official electoral commission, however, said Frelimo had increased its representation in the 250-seat parliament by 11 deputies to 195, while Podemos gained 31.
Before the vote, civil society groups had accused Frelimo of registering almost 900,000 fake voters, out of an electorate of 17 million. Mozambique's Catholic bishops alleged vote rigging had occurred, while EU election observers said there were “irregularities during the counting and unjustified alteration of election results.”
On October 19, when accusations of electoral fraud were already circulating, unknown gunmen shot dead lawyer Elvino Dias and Paulo Guambe, a filmmaker and Podemos official.
Human rights investigators have said the shootings fit a pattern of assassinations of opposition politicians, journalists, activists and lawyers and no one being brought to justice.
“It is premature to say whether or not there are clues [as to who the killers are]”said Hilário Lole, spokesperson for the National Lícito Investigation Service, which is investigating the case.
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António Niquice, a member of Frelimo's central committee, said he was shocked by the shootings and called on the judiciary to hold the killers accountable.
Mondlane was also allegedly shot by plainclothes police while he held a press conference on October 21 at the location where Dias and Guambe were killed.
“They started shooting live bullets directly at… Venâncio,” said Amade Ali, a 30-year-old man who was acting as one of Mondlane's bodyguards.
“We started running towards the car. [and I] Suddenly a efectivo bullet hit me, not a rubber one,” he said, indicating that a bullet had hit his right cheekbone. For those mourning Jeremiah, their grief has merged with calls for political change. Last Tuesday, as mourners cried over his coffin, wearing white T-shirts with his face on them and holding his photo. They shouted for justice and democracy.
In footage broadcast by STV, a regional television station, two young women held paper signs in Portuguese that read: “You can kill me, but don't kill democracy.”
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