Zimbabwe’s opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) on Friday made a strong early showing in elections, taking more than a quarter of contested seats in Parliament, the electoral commission said.
President Robert Mugabe’s Zanu-PF picked up eight seats, mostly from the rural Mashonaland area that has been its traditional support base, according to first results.
The MDC won 31 seats in its urban strongholds of Harare, Zimbabwe’s second city of Bulawayo and Mutare near the border with Mozambique following voting on Thursday that elections officials said had been peaceful.
Turnout was on average below 50% in the elections, following weeks of campaigning that were free of the bloodshed that marred the previous ballots in 2000 and 2002 in which scores were killed and many more beaten, mostly opposition supporters.
Among those elected is Mugabe’s nephew Patrick Zhuwawo. Three senior MDC party members, Welshman Ncube, Gibson Sibanda and Innocent Gonese, have retained their seats.
Parliamentary Speaker Emmerson Mnangagwa, who was tipped to succeed Mugabe until a major shakeup in the Zanu-PF party leadership late last year, was defeated in the central Kwekwe constituency.
The Zanu-PF candidate lost the Highfield constituency, where Mugabe predicted victory when he cast his vote on Thursday. Zanu-PF also lost the Glen Norah constituency of Harare, where Mugabe gave his final rally on Wednesday.
No major incidents
No major incidents of violence were reported during the 12 hours of voting on Thursday, with elections commission chairperson George Chiveshe saying that the polls took place ”in a peaceful and, in some instances, joyful atmosphere”.
Voters formed long queues under scattered showers outside polling stations across Zimbabwe’s townships, cities and villages for parliamentary elections that capped weeks of violence-free campaigning.
Mugabe, in power since Zimbabwe’s independence in 1980, dismissed opposition concerns of election fraud as ”nonsense” after he cast his ballot at a Harare township community hall, adding that he is ”absolutely confident” of winning a two-thirds majority for his Zanu-PF.
”Everybody is seeing that these are free and fair elections,” said Mugabe, who turned up at a polling station at a Highfield township community hall accompanied by his wife, Grace, and young son Chatunga.
But MDC leader Morgan Tsvangirai dismissed the vote as unfair.
”This is not going to be a free and fair election,” he said.
Turnout was overall weak at between 30% and 40%, electoral officials said.
Free of bloodshed
Whatever the outcome, Zimbabweans have been relieved that the elections were free of the bloodshed that marred polls in 2000 and 2002 that left about 100 dead and many more beaten, mostly opposition supporters who were attacked by Zanu-PF youth militias.
”This time we are voting freely,” said Comfort Size, a firewood vendor who stood outside a polling station in Harare’s oldest township of Mbare.
”The process is peaceful. It’s quiet. No one has been beaten as far as I know,” said Maphios Mbonesi, a security guard who also described himself as a farmer.
After the closing of polls, police rounded up and detained about 200 women who had gathered in Harare’s main square for an all-night prayer vigil for ”divine intervention” as they waited for the first results to trickle in.
A journalist and a photographer for Britain’s Sunday Telegraph were arrested in the town of Norton outside of Harare while they were interviewing voters and charged with violating the country’s strict media laws for working without proper accreditation.
Toby Harnden, chief foreign correspondent for the Sunday Telegraph, and photographer Julian Simmonds are being held in custody at the Norton police station, police said.
Analysts attribute the absence of bloodshed to Mugabe’s desire to regain legitimacy as a statesman instead of presiding over what the United States now considers one of the world’s six ”outposts of tyranny”.
Once considered the breadbasket of Southern Africa, Zimbabwe is facing food shortages with the government admitting for the first time last month that it would begin importing corn meal, the national staple, to feed about 1,5-million needy Zimbabweans.
The food shortages are partly blamed on Mugabe’s land-reform programme that saw thousands of white-owned farms seized and distributed to landless blacks five years ago.
In the last parliamentary vote in 2000, the MDC picked up 57 seats while Zanu-PF got 62, but under Zimbabwe law, the president directly appoints 30 MPs, meaning that the ruling party was able to command a strong majority in Parliament.
To win in this election, the MDC would have to gain 76 seats compared with only 46 for Zanu-PF, which can again rely on presidential appointments to pad its majority in Parliament.
About 5,8-million Zimbabweans were registered to vote in the elections, Zimbabwe’s sixth parliamentary vote since independence. — Sapa-AFP