OWN CORRESPONDENT, Harare | Tuesday
ZIMBABWEAN President Robert Mugabe’s party has won a by-election in Harare’s working-class suburb of Marondera in a contest marked by persistent intimidation of the opposition Movement for Democratic Change.
Ambrose Mutinhiri of the ruling Zanu-PF party won the by-election with 7376 votes to the 4366 for Shadreck Chipangura of the year-old opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC), according to reports on state radio.
Marondera was the scene of intense political violence ahead of June’s parliamentary election, and one person died in the run-up to the weekend by-election in clashes between Zanu-PF and MDC supporters.
The by-election was called after Zanu-PF lawmaker Rufaro Gwanzura died in a car accident in August.
Recent opinion polls showed that support for Zanu-PF had dramatically fallen, particularly in the country’s tribal areas, which are regarded as Mugabe’s political fortress, in the wake of a worsening national crisis after the June elections.
However, the MDC and eyewitnesses said thousands of Zanu-PF youths, led by Mugabe’s lawless guerilla war veterans, were poured into the area in an election campaign that saw one man shot dead by veterans and scores of MDC supporters injured.
At voting during the weekend, eyewitnesses saw war veteran encampments set up close to polling stations, sometimes inside the 100m radius within which no political activity is permitted. Police took no action.
Two members of the MDC national council, its executive body, said they had to flee for their lives when they were attacked on Sunday night by a mob of ruling party thugs outside the polling station in the village of Beatrice, 60km south of Harare.
However, Zanu-PF’s votes dropped by a third since the June elections, while the MDC’s vote was almost static. Turnout was nearly 25% lower than in June. – AFP