Zimbabwe’s President Robert Mugabe has vowed that his ruling Zanu-PF party will crush the opposition in next year’s general elections, the state-run Herald reported on Saturday.
Mugabe said a Zanu-PF party victory in a recent by-election had set panic among the opposition, which lost its seat in Parliament.
”They [the Movement for Democratic Change] now fear elections and are giving all sorts of lame excuses for boycotting elections,” Mugabe told a party central committee meeting on Friday.
Zimbabwe’s long-time leader continued: ”We dare them. Boycott or no boycott, well you are ripe for burial and we will put you to eternal sleep in March next year.”
The opposition MDC has since the start of the year been issuing threats to boycott next year’s polls unless certain demands, among them the setting up of an independent electoral commission, are met.
Mugabe’s party won the Zengeza seat by-election last weekend, where just about a third of the eligible voters cast their ballots, beating the MDC, which previously held the seat.
The president, who has repeatedly accused the MDC of being bankrolled by Western nations, especially former colonial power Britain, said the defeat in Zengeza was not just of the MDC, but also that of Britain and the United States.
”Let the ballot box consign the sell-outs to the dustbin of history, never to be retrieved again,” he said.
Zimbabwe is due to hold its sixth five-yearly legislative polls in March 2005. — Sapa-AFP