/ 25 June 2000

ZIM NEWSPAPERS CAST THEIR BALLOTS

PRESIDENT Robert Mugabe’s Zanu-PF will win parliamentary elections this weekend by a landslide, the state-owned Herald predicts as the independent Daily News forecasts the opposite. “Zanu-PF set for landslide win” screamed the banner headline across the front page of the Herald on Saturday. “Zanu-PF is headed for a landslide victory, shrugging off a token challenge from the white-backed opposition Movement for Democratic Change,” it said. The pro-MDC Daily News has: “Zanu-PF heavies face defeat in poll.” It quotes an opinion poll it commissioned recently which predicts that the MDC, headed by Morgan Tsvangirai, who used to head the powerful trade union movement in Zimbabwe, will win at least 70 of the 120 electorates.

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