Harare | Thursday
ZIMBABWE’S High Court has made a ruling that will allow thousands of dual citizens mainly minority whites to vote in upcoming crunch presidential election, The Financial Gazette reported on Thursday.
In what has been seen as a victory for the opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC), which enjoys strong backing from whites in the former Rhodesia — the court extended by six months a deadline for dual passport holders to renounce their second citizenship.
The deadline for compliance with the Citizenship of Zimbabwe Amendment Act, which took effect last year, has now been extended to the end of August, the independent weekly reported.
The law affects an estimated 30 000 whites in an overall population of some 12-million.
The legislation was seen as a ploy for disenfranchising white Zimbabweans of foreign descent ahead of the March 9-10 vote, since they would be stripped of their Zimbabwean nationality if they continued to hold a passport from another country after the deadline.
In 2000, ahead of parliamentary elections, the Supreme Court nixed a government bid to strip people with dual British-Zimbabwean citizenship of their Zimbabwean nationality unless they gave up their British passports.
Meanwhile, with 10 days left in Zimbabwe’s tense election countdown, opposition candidate Morgan Tsvangirai had another brush on Wednesday with police, who detained him for holding an ”illegal gathering.”
The former union leader was holding a private meeting with a handful of MDC officials.
MDC press officer Percy Makombe said police, using a draconian new security law, declared it ”an illegal gathering and refused (to allow) them to go away for 30 minutes” afterward.
Before dawn on Wednesday, MDC lawmaker Tafadza Musekiwa’s home in Chitungwiza, a working-class satellite city outside Harare, was stoned by suspected supporters of Mugabe, MDC officials said.
The latest incidents came two days after police charged Tsvangirai with treason for allegedly plotting to assassinate Mugabe (78).
MDC secretary general Welshman Ncube and MP Renson Gasela also face treason charges in the affair, in which the party has protested its innocence, saying it was the victim of a government set-up.
As evidence, police are using a grainy video shot in Canada by a former Mossad agent. The tape, screened by an Australian television station, purports to show Tsvangirai talking about ”eliminating” Mugabe.
At least 26 people have been killed in election-related violence since the start of the year, while hundreds more have been tortured, according to rights groups.
The MDC says more than 90 of its supporters have been killed since 2000, and MDC offices and individuals, as well as international observers, have been targeted for attack in the run-up to the presidential vote.
Tsvangirai (49) was detained at Harare airport earlier this month, briefly accused of having a false passport. Last year charges against him of inciting violence at a September 2000 public meeting were dropped.
The Harare administration has drawn intense international criticism over moves seen as aimed at ensuring Mugabe’s re-election, and Canada has said it will lead a push for sanctions at a Commonwealth summit next week. – Sapa, AFP
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