Zimbabwe opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai urged the leaders of Southern Africa on Wednesday to use their influence to help prevent his country from sliding into chaos following disputed elections. MDC lawyers, meanwhile, were trying to persuade the High Court to order the immediate release of the results of the March 29 presidential election.
African National Congress leader Jacob Zuma on Tuesday criticised the delay in declaring the results of Zimbabwe’s presidential election. Zuma, the front-runner to become the next president of South Africa, indicated that ”keeping the nation in suspense … keeping the international community in suspense” was wrong.
The Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions (ZCTU) and the Congress of South African Trade Unions (Cosatu) have demanded that the Zimbabwean presidential election results be announced. The two trade-union federations met in Johannesburg on Tuesday.
More than 60 mostly white Zimbabwean farmers have been evicted from their land by war veterans loyal to President Robert Mugabe since the weekend, a farmers’ union said on Tuesday. ”The situation is very severe. The evictions are continuing right round the country,” Commercial Farmers’ Union president Trevor Gifford said.
Zimbabwe awaited a key court ruling on Tuesday, which could order an end to the 10-day wait for presidential election results as pressure on veteran leader Robert Mugabe mounts. The High Court was due to rule on a petition by the opposition demanding the electoral commission immediately declare the outcome of the March 29 polls.
White-owned farms are again under siege in Zimbabwe, but while critics deride Robert Mugabe’s land-reform programme as shambolic and economically fatal, it could yet help him cling to power. President Mugabe’s ruling Zanu-PF is playing on the emotive issues of land and race to try to discredit rival Morgan Tsvangirai ahead of a possible run-off.
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Political leaders should never stay in power for over a decade, South Africa’s ruling party president Jacob Zuma has said, making clear his opposition to the path taken by some African rulers. Zuma spoke to the Wall Street Journal in an interview before neighbouring Zimbabwe held elections last month.
A Zimbabwean court has postponed until Tuesday a ruling on the opposition’s legal bid to force the immediate publication of the March 29 presidential election results, lawyers said. ”The matter has been postponed to tomorrow,” opposition lawyer Alec Muchadehama told journalists outside the High Court in Harare.
Zimbabwe’s opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai visited South Africa on Monday for private meetings in his first foreign trip since the March 29 presidential election, a party official said. Meanwhile, about 200 Zimbabwean exiles gathered at the Union Buildings in Pretoria on Monday to hand over a petition to President Thabo Mbeki.
Zimbabwe’s war veterans have launched fresh invasions of the country’s few remaining white-owned farms as President Robert Mugabe appears to be falling back on the tested tactics of violence and raising racial tensions, in preparation for a run-off vote in the presidential election.
A Zimbabwe court delayed until Monday a ruling on whether it could order the release of presidential election results, which President Robert Mugabe is trying to hold up. The Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) opposition says Mugabe wants to delay the result to help him find a way out of the biggest crisis of his 28-year rule.
Zimbabwe’s opposition went to court on Sunday to try to force the release of presidential election results after President Robert Mugabe’s party called for a delay and a recount. The Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) says its leader, Morgan Tsvangirai, has won the vote and should be declared president.
Zimbabwe sunk deeper into political stalemate on Sunday, with the opposition going to court to get election results released and President Robert Mugabe’s ruling party asking for a delay. Tensions between the two sides have risen sharply since the elections last weekend, fuelled by opposition suspicions Mugabe is preparing to rig the outcome.
Zimbabwe opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai declared himself the clear winner on Saturday of a presidential election and accused Robert Mugabe’s ruling party of preparing for a "war" against the people. "The result is known, that the Movement for Democratic Change [MDC] won the presidential and parliamentary election," Tsvangirai said.
A Zimbabwe court postponed a legal bid by the opposition to force the release of presidential election results on Saturday, after the electoral commission asked for more time to prepare its response. Earlier, armed police briefly prevented lawyers from the opposition Movement for Democratic Change from entering the High Court, although they were later allowed in.
British Prime Minister Gordon Brown is to meet South African President Thabo Mbeki later on Saturday for talks on the situation in Zimbabwe, Brown’s office said. Mbeki is in Britain to attend a conference of centre-left leaders in Watford near London. The two leaders were expected to meet in private on the sidelines of the conference.
Zimbabwe’s opposition was pushing for the High Court to consider an urgent petition on Saturday demanding the immediate release of results from last weekend’s presidential election, its lawyer said. ”We are doing everything in our powers to have it heard today but we are not expecting anything before lunchtime,” Alec Muchadehama said.
Zimbabwe was on Saturday facing a protracted battle between the opposition and President Robert Mugabe’s ruling party over the outcome of elections, with results still awaited a week on from the vote. Mugabe, still to make any public comment since last Saturday’s elections, was endorsed by his Zanu-PF party on Friday to stand in a run-off.
Zimbabwe’s ruling Zanu-PF party on Friday decided President Robert Mugabe should contest a run-off vote against opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai if neither wins a majority in the presidential election. The party politburo met for about five hours to discuss Mugabe’s next move in facing the greatest crisis of his 28-year rule.
Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe and top aides thrashed out his survival prospects on Friday as the opposition upped pressure for presidential poll results to be declared after its parliamentary victory. The Movement for Democratic Change has lodged a court application demanding an end to the silence over the outcome of March 29’s presidential ballot.
A leadership meeting of President Robert Mugabe’s ruling party will decide on Friday to contest a runoff election against opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai, a senior official said. Referring to a meeting of the Zanu-PF politburo, a senior party member told Reuters: ”I have no doubt the resolution will be in favour of a run-off, I have no doubt about that.
Robert Mugabe’s aides have told Zimbabwe’s opposition leaders that he is prepared to give up power in return for guarantees, including immunity from prosecution for past crimes. But the aides have warned that if the Movement for Democratic Change does not agree then Mugabe is threatening to declare emergency rule.
Zimbabwean police have arrested a New York Times correspondent who was covering the country’s election, the newspaper said on Thursday. ”We do not know where he is being held, or what, if any, charges have been made against him,” the newspaper’s executive editor, Bill Keller, said in a statement.
Zimbabwe President Robert Mugabe’s deafening silence after weekend elections has raised increasing speculation about the fate of a strongman who has never previously found himself lost for words. Rumours have also been swirling around about him possibly preparing to depart for a foreign country where he will live out his twilight years in exile.
Robert Mugabe’s ruling party is ready for a presidential election run-off between the veteran Zimbabwean leader and his arch-rival, Morgan Tsvangirai, a government spokesperson said on Thursday. ”Zanu-PF is ready for a run-off, we are ready for a resulting victory,” Deputy Information Minister Bright Matonga said.
Investment group LonZim plans to spend -million buying Zimbabwean assets this year as interest in the once-wealthy nation reawakens in the twilight of President Robert Mugabe’s rule. An end to Mugabe’s rule could make the once-wealthy nation appealing again, foreign investors say.
Zimbabweans waited anxiously on Thursday for an end to a deafening official silence over the outcome of their presidential election, after the opposition took control of Parliament. The country’s electoral commission wrapped up final results on the parliamentary contest in the early hours, in which President Robert Mugabe’s ruling party lost its majority.
President Robert Mugabe’s party lost control of Zimbabwe’s Parliament on Wednesday and the opposition said that he had been defeated for the first time in a presidential poll. Official results, which have trickled out slowly since Saturday’s election, showed that Mugabe’s ruling Zanu-PF could not outvote the combined opposition seats in Parliament.
Prospects for a run-off in Zimbabwe’s election appeared to increase on Wednesday after state media said President Robert Mugabe had failed to win a majority for the first time in nearly three decades. Opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai, however, insisted on Tuesday that he would win an outright majority from last Saturday’s election.
South African Nobel laureate Desmond Tutu on Wednesday proposed sending an international peacekeeping force to Zimbabwe in the wake of the unresolved presidential elections. Tutu told the BBC he favoured ”a mixed force of Africans and others” to protect human rights in the beleaguered African country.
Opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai and the Zimbabwe government both denied on Tuesday that they were in talks to arrange the resignation of President Robert Mugabe. At a news conference on Tuesday evening, Tsvangirai confirmed, however, for the first time personally that his party had won the elections.
President Robert Mugabe is under growing pressure to recognise defeat in Zimbabwe’s presidential election as the opposition held talks with military and security officials on Tuesday. Mugabe’s security cabinet had on Sunday decided not to recognise defeat after being forewarned that he had lost the vote.