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Zimbabwe government warns opposition over victory claims
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Zimbabwe government warns opposition over victory claims
Tendai Biti, secretary general of the main MDC opposition party, told diplomats and observers overnight that early results posted at polling stations showed the MDC was victorious. ?We have won this election, we have won this election?, he said. Officials said they would begin announcing results of the presidential, parliamentary and local polls yesterday. Voting ended at 7 pm on Saturday.
Zimbabwe?s security forces, which have thrown their backing firmly behind Mugabe, said before the election they would not allow a victory declaration before counting was complete. ?It is called a coup d?etat and we all know how coups are handled?, government spokesman George Charamba told the state-owned Sunday Mail.
Widespread vote-rigging</B>
Residents in the eastern opposition stronghold of Manicaland said riot police stopped a victory demonstration by about 200 MDC supporters. There was no violence, they said.
Mugabe, in power since independence from Britain in 1980, faced his most formidable challenge in the election against MDC leader Morgan Tsvangirai and ruling ZANU-PF party defector Simba Makoni campaigning on the collapse of Zimbabwe?s economy.
Although the odds seem stacked against Mugabe, 84 analysts believe he will be declared the winner, and the opposition accused him of widespread vote-rigging.
African observers say they detected fraud in Saturday?s ballot. Mugabe, who accuses the West of sabotaging Zimbabwe?s economy, expressed confidence on Saturday he would be returned to office. ?We will succeed. We will conquer?, he said. He rejected vote-rigging allegations.
Once-prosperous Zimbabwe is suffering from the world?s highest inflation rate of more than 100,000 percent, chronic shortages of food and fuel, and an HIV/AIDS epidemic that has contributed to a steep decline in life expectancy.
Biti said the MDC?s election agents had reported that early results showed Tsvangirai was projected to win 66 percent of the vote in the capital Harare, an opposition stronghold.
He said Tsvangirai had made significant inroads in Mugabe?s rural strongholds by leading in the southern province of Masvingo and Mashonaland Central Province, north of Harare, where the MDC has not won a parliamentary seat since 2000.
<B>SADC too soft</B>
Observers from the Pan-African parliament said in a letter to the electoral commission they had found more than 8,000 non-existent voters registered on empty land in a Harare constituency.
Most international observers were banned and a team from the regional grouping, the Southern African Development Community (SADC), did not comment yesterday. Critics say the SADC, which has tried to mediate over Zimbabwe, is too soft on Mugabe.
If no candidate wins more than 51 percent of the vote,the election will go into a second round.
MacDonald DZIRUTWE</B>
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