Zimbabwe’s main opposition party said on Wednesday an investigation into last week’s parliamentary election indicates massive electoral fraud in at least 30 seats won by the ruling Zanu-PF party.
The main opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) said in 11 races the winning Zanu-PF candidate got more votes in the official returns than the government’s own electoral commission said were cast in those races.
In each case, the MDC said its candidate had an unassailable lead, polling more than half the official total of votes cast.
However, the official returns showed 183 000 more votes than the electoral commission said were cast.
”This election was stolen. The results are in no way an accurate reflection of the sovereign wishes of the people of Zimbabwe,” MDC spokesperson Paul Themba Nyathi said in a statement.
President Robert Mugabe’s Zanu-PF party was declared the winner of 78 of Parliament’s 120 elected seats. The MDC got 41 seats and one seat went to an independent candidate, former information minister Jonathan Moyo. Under Zimbabwe law, Mugabe appoints another 30 MPs.
Nyathi said the MDC limited its analysis to the 30 seats because the electoral commission refused to release figures for other races, a decision he said ”indicates widespread irregularities” in those other areas.
In races in urban areas where the MDC was widely expected to hold its seats, Nyathi said very few discrepancies were identified.
”This raises further suspicions that there was a calculated plan to ensure that the MDC won a sufficient number of seats to provide the electoral process, and the end result, with a veneer of legitimacy,” said Nyathi.
The MDC comparison of official final returns in the 30 races with the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission’s official numbers for votes cast found what Nyathi called ”serious and unaccountable gaps” between the two figures. In the 30 races alone, if found it could not account for more than 183 000 ballots.
Nyathi said the preliminary findings have been submitted to observer missions from South Africa and the Southern African Development Community.
”Regrettably, these observer missions have so far shown a chronic lack of interest in such compelling statistics and instead have maintained their respective positions that the elections reflected the ‘will of the people’,” said Nyathi.
South Africa’s mission endorsed the election despite serious objections of some mission members. South African President Thabo Mbeki, government officials and some observers had said ahead of the poll they saw no reason why it would not be free and fair.
The United States and Britain, which were not among the observers hand-picked by Mugabe to assess the election, condemned the vote and said the process had been tilted heavily in favour of the ruling party. Both countries participated in the diplomatic observer mission in Zimbabwe.
British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw said the elections ”were fundamentally flawed and further weaken Mugabe’s legitimacy”.
”Some say this is about Africa versus the West. It is not,” said Straw. ”It is about democracy versus dictatorship. Other Africans, too, have been saying enough is enough.” — Sapa-AP