Pressure mounted on the Zimbabwe government on Thursday to admit foreign observers to oversee a presidential election run-off amid fresh claims that pro-government militias were instilling terror in communities in the countryside. Meanwhile, there was still no word on when a second round should take place.
Zimbabwe’s opposition on Monday mulled whether to contest a presidential election run-off after winning the first round as President Robert Mugabe’s camp began gearing up for the ballot. "We are still putting things together and when we are ready, we will get the press informed," George Sibotshiwe, a spokesperson for opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai, said.
Zimbabwe’s electoral commission was to present candidates with initial results from a March 29 poll on Thursday, in a move that could force President Robert Mugabe into a run-off against his arch rival. More than a month after polling day, the four candidates who stood for president on March 29 have been asked to attend a verification meeting at noon.
The Zimbabwe government savoured a rare diplomatic victory on Wednesday after the United Nations Security Council failed to agree on how to respond to the country’s post-election crisis. Western countries such as former colonial power Britain had been trying to steer the council to adopt a common strategy on the situation in Zimbabwe.
Zimbabwe’s main rights group accused the government on Tuesday of unleashing violence to help President Robert Mugabe cling to power as the wait for election results stretched into a second month. While the United Nations prepared to meet in New York to discuss the post-election crisis, Mugabe’s regime warned it would crack down on violence.
A month after Zimbabweans took to the polls to pick a president, the outcome of the vote is still not in sight as the United Nations prepared on Tuesday to discuss the Zimbabwe impasse. Suggestions by the country’s electoral body that results of the March 29 presidential vote could be out later this week have been met with scepticism.
Zimbabwe’s opposition leader pushed the United Nations on Monday to intervene to end his country’s election crisis as President Robert Mugabe’s ruling party flatly denied it was behind a rise in post-poll violence. Meanwhile, the row over a partial recount of the March 29 poll rumbled on.
Zimbabwe President Robert Mugabe came out fighting on Friday in his first major speech since disputed polls, fending off criticism over his rights record and accusing Britain of stirring up unrest. But Mugabe did not speak about the outcome of the March 29 presidential elections, the results of which are still to be announced.
Zimbabwe’s beleaguered President Robert Mugabe was set on Friday to make his first keynote speech since the country’s disputed polls at celebrations to mark the 28th anniversary of the country’s independence. Mugabe was scheduled to be the main speaker at a rally at the Gwanzura Stadium in Highfield, a suburb of Harare.
President Robert Mugabe’s security forces clamped down hard on unrest during a general strike in Zimbabwe, arresting dozens of opposition supporters before the stoppage fizzled out on Wednesday. The security forces scaled back their presence in the capital as it became clear that the call for people to remain off work had failed.