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/ 12 October 2005
Zimbabwe’s main opposition on Wednesday announced it will boycott next month’s polls to a newly created Upper House of Parliament, saying elections in the country are a farce and breed ”illegitimate outcomes”. Morgan Tsvangirai, leader of the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC), said democracy in Zimbabwe is still a farce.
Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe returned to work on Monday after a visit to China yielded a few agreements but fell way short of an expected rescue package for his country, and remained defiant of Western criticism of his regime. The 81-year-old leader shrugged off global pressure over his government’s urban demolition blitz.
The oldest, most populous township in Zimbabwe’s capital was filled with debris on Monday as police pressed on with a highly unpopular drive to clean up Harare, while resident complained they were hit by a ”tsunami”.
United Nations envoy for humanitarian needs James Morris winds up his trip to drought-stricken Southern African this week, meeting with Zimbabwe’s President Robert Mugabe to discuss food needs. Morris has already been forewarned by the state media not to overstep his mandate when he visits the country on Wednesday.
Zimbabweans are reeling under a serious shortage of basic commodities and erratic power supplies following the March 31 parliamentary elections, and experts partially blame this on dwindling foreign exchange reserves and a poor harvest. Captains of industry and trade union leaders say the shortages were anticipated.
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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. The MDC won 31 seats in its urban strongholds.
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Zimbabwe opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai on Friday dismissed the elections as a ”disgusting massive fraud” and accused President Robert Mugabe of treating his country like ”his private property”. Incoming election results are showing that Mugabe’s ruling party is starting to close in on Tsvangirai’s early lead.
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Zimbabweans were holding landmark elections on Thursday that President Robert Mugabe hopes will tighten his ruling party’s 25-year grip on power after weeks of campaigning. Under an early-morning drizzling rain, thousands of people could be seen queueing at polling stations in Harare.
A Zimbabwe judge was expected on Wednesday to begin handing down sentences as the trial of 70 suspected mercenaries accused of plotting a coup in oil-rich Equatorial Guinea resumed. ”Today we are expecting judgement, sentencing and trial,” said defence lawyer Jonathan Samkange.
Hundreds of schools have sprung up in Zimbabwe’s former white farmlands but many of the black children they are meant to educate are not turning up at classes. At the Laforte school in Chegutu, located about 140km west of Harare, three quarters of the 116 children have not paid the fees imposed by the government to cover education costs.