Mozambique council to rule on election results Monday

Maputo, Mozambique — Mozambique's constitutional council will announce Monday whether it will validate the results of elections that have plunged the country into deadly turmoil, the body said.

Exiled opposition leader Venancio Mondlane has threatened to call "a popular uprising" if the Constitutional Council approves initial results that found he came second in the Oct. 9 vote behind the ruling Frelimo party candidate.

Constitutional council president Lucia da Luz Ribeiro will make "the proclamation of the definitive results" of the presidential and legislative elections at a public hearing on Monday, the council said in a statement.

The election commission results said that Mondlane won 20 percent of the presidential vote compared to 71% for Daniel Chapo, the Frelimo candidate.

Mondlane has said the result was rigged and that he won 53% of the vote. Several international observer missions have also said there were irregularities.

More than two months of political unrest has left at least 130 dead, according to the Plataforma Decide non-government group.

Mondlane has said there will be "chaos" and a "new popular uprising of a scale never seen" if the earlier results are validated.

He has taken refuge abroad, saying he fears for his safety. Frelimo has ruled the poor southern African state since independence from Portugal in 1975.