SUSAN NJANJI, Harare | Tuesday 2.00pm.
A SENIOR member of Zimbabwe’s ruling party has admitted it could be trounced by the new opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) in next month’s elections.
At the same time the government of President Robert Mugabe on Tuesday gazetted legislation empowering the government to acquire 841 white-owned farms for resettlement by landless blacks.
Because parliament has been dissolved, the new law will only be law for the next six months unless it is ratified by the incoming parliament.
Eddison Zvobgo, ZANU-PF secretary for legal affairs, was quoted by the independent Daily News as saying that a February referendum rejecting a government-backed constitution was an early indication that the MDC could win the parliamentary vote.
“We are afraid that history can repeat itself and we can lose the elections,” Zvobgo, who is also a minister without without portfolio, was quoted as saying at an election rally in the southern town of Masvingo.
“We really have tough homework because the MDC poses a serious challenge,” Zvobgo said.
He said he was grateful that the invasions of white-owned farms by war veterans in the run-up to elections had helped the Zimbabwe African National Union-Patriotic Front (ZANU-PF) regain some of its lost support.
“If the former fighters had not invaded the farms, then we could be facing serious trouble,” he said, adding: “The invasions helped the party to garner support from the people.”
Veterans of the country’s war of independence have spearheaded the often violent occupations of more than 1300 white-owned farms since February.
Zvobgo, the first ruling party official to openly admit the threat posed to its continued rule by the labour-backed party, said however that none of the current MDC officials had sufficient leadership ability to run the southern African country.
US-based pre-election observers from the National Democratic Institute for International Affairs have said Zimbabwe is not ready for free and fair elections because of high levels of violence and intimidation of the electorate in the run-up to the vote, set for June 24 and 25.
At least 25 people, most of them opposition supporters, have been killed and more than 100 people have been injured in election-related violence. –AFP