Zimbabwe’s justice minister lost his seat on Monday and first election results showed the opposition level with President Robert Mugabe’s party, but delays to most results fuelled opposition suspicions of vote rigging.
Results of the parliamentary election began trickling out on Monday, 36 hours after polls had closed.
The main opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) said it had won 96 parliamentary seats in 128 constituencies, or more than 60% of the vote, and MDC secretary general Tendai Biti said there was no way the ruling Zanu-PF would win a majority in Parliament.
”Section 64(i)e of the Electoral Act allows for posting of results outside the polling stations and now it is going to be very difficult for the regime to steal what is already in the public domain,” said Biti while addressing journalists and members of the diplomatic community.
He said the government should not ”seduce the people of Zimbabwe to do what is in their natural DNA — that is, violence” by stealing the vote.
However, no official details were available on the presidential vote, in which Mugabe (84) faces his most formidable political challenge of 28 years in power because of Zimbabwe’s economic collapse and a two-pronged attack by veteran MDC rival Morgan Tsvangirai and Zanu-PF defector Simba Makoni.
The latest results showed the MDC and Mugabe’s Zanu-PF running neck-and-neck, with 12 seats each from a total Parliament of 210 constituencies, according to figures issued by the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission (ZEC).
Biti said the MDC had won 11 seats out of a possible 12 in Bulawayo; in the last constituency, Mpopoma, there was no election as a result of the death of a candidate and a by-election will be held. In Harare, he said, the party had won 28 seats out of 29 and in Manicaland 20 from a possible 26.
”We faired very badly in Mashonaland Central, where only got two seats out of a possible 22. We won in Bindura and Mazoe West. From Masvingo we have got 15 out of 26 and we are on stopping,” said Biti.
Justice Minister Patrick Chinamasa, a senior member of Mugabe’s government, lost his seat in the opposition eastern stronghold of Manicaland.
Riot police appeared on the streets of the capital overnight and the state-run Herald newspaper accused the MDC of ”preparing its supporters to engage in violence by pre-empting results, claiming they had won”.
On Sunday, the government said any early victory claim would be an attempted coup.
Although the odds seem stacked against Mugabe, in power since independence in 1980, analysts believe his iron grip on the country and solid backing from the armed forces could enable him to declare victory. The president has rejected vote-rigging allegations.
Zimbabwe is suffering the world’s highest inflation of more than 100 000%, chronic shortages of food and fuel, and an HIV/Aids epidemic that has contributed to a steep decline in life expectancy.
Complexity
ZEC chairperson George Chiweshe said the delay in issuing results was due to the complexity of holding presidential, parliamentary and local polls together for the first time, and to the need to verify results meticulously. The opposition said the delay was a plot to keep Mugabe in power.
”Mugabe has lost the election. Everyone knows no one voted for Mugabe, but they are now trying to cook up a result in his favour,” MDC secretary general Tendai Biti said on Sunday.
Two South African members of a regional observer mission said the delay in announcing the election results ”underscores the fear that vote-rigging is taking place”. They refused to sign a positive preliminary report on the poll by the Southern African Development Community (SADC) and said there was evidence of ”widespread and convincing” MDC wins.
SADC mission chairperson Jose Marcos Barrica of Angola told reporters through an interpreter that the election had been a ”peaceful and credible expression of the will of the people”.
Barrica expressed concern about the voters roll, opposition access to the media and statements by the heads of security forces who had said they would not accept an opposition victory. But he added: ”We saw that the basic conditions for a free and fair election were there.”
The dissenting SADC mission members, who belong to South Africa’s opposition Democratic Alliance, said in a statement: ”It is impossible for this deeply flawed electoral process to be viewed as a credible expression of the will of the people.”
The SADC, which critics say has been too soft on Mugabe, has unsuccessfully tried to mediate an end to Zimbabwe’s crisis, which has turned one-quarter of the population into refugees.
Celebration
On Monday, many Zimbabweans were already celebrating an opposition victory despite the delay in announcing official results.
”Even before the ZEC could finish announcing the election … outcome, I am very much convinced that the main opposition has done it. This marks a new chapter in my life in this rural village of Bocha. I have been sick and tired of Zanu-PF’s dictatorial tendencies,” said Muchineripi Machingura, of Mutare.
”Everything in Zimbabwe has been politicised, from food distribution, fuel allocation, withdrawal of cash from the banks [to] job opportunities,” he said.
Veteran Zanu-PF politburo member Titus Mkhungulushi, who has been at loggerheads with the ruling party’s top echelons over oppressive laws, said a Zimbabwe for all has come.
He has on numerous occasions been suspended from the politburo, Zanu-PF’s top decision-making body, for calling party leaders ”heartless and dictatorial”.
Many of Mkhungulushi’s minority Shangaan people live in Chiredzi South, which lags behind in development — from water and sanitation to electricity distribution, communications infrastructure and schools and hospitals — and is in need of food and medical supplies.
”There is no doubt that the true change has come. I believe Morgan Tsvangirai will bring in the much-needed change and development to the country, and, more importantly, democracy and rule of law.
”I am sure Tsvangirai has learnt a lot from Mugabe’s mistakes of selfishness, dictatorship and heartless. Instead of our government [being] answerable to the people, it was the people who were answerable to Mugabe and Zanu-PF,” said Mkhungulushi. — Reuters, CAJ News