Rigging fears were increasing in Zimbabwe on Tuesday three days after the election commission failed to release results from the presidential vote, in which the opposition Movement for Democratic Change claims to have ousted authoritarian President Robert Mugabe.
Seretse Khama Ian Khama was inaugurated as Botswana’s President on Tuesday, inheriting a rare political and economic success story. Just next door, millions of Zimbabweans desperate to end economic misery anxiously awaited results of an election in which President Robert Mugabe faced the biggest challenge in 28 years of iron-fisted rule.
A projection by Zimbabwe’s ruling party shows opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai will beat President Robert Mugabe in the country’s election but a run-off will be needed, Zanu-PF party sources said on Tuesday. Two senior sources said projections showed Tsvangirai getting 48,3%, against Mugabe’s 43%.
You can fool some of the people some of the time, but you can’t fool all of the people all of the time. Bleary-eyed readers of the <i>Mail & Guardian Online</i> on Tuesday April 1 could be forgiven for falling for Eskom’s bold new "sector-sharing plan" to save electricity. We round up some of the day’s best pranks.
Zimbabwe’s ruling party edged ahead of the main opposition on Tuesday with over half of parliamentary election results released as concerns grew that President Robert Mugabe was trying to rig the vote. Riot police in armoured carriers patrolled two of Harare’s opposition strongholds overnight and residents were told to stay off the normally bustling streets.
Zimbabwe sat on a knife-edge on Tuesday as it awaited a new leader amid mounting pressure to swiftly release full results of an election already claimed by the opposition. For a second night running, security was stepped up in and around the capital, Harare, in readiness to quell any post-electoral unrest.
Zimbabwe’s opposition claimed a clear lead over President Robert Mugabe and his party as pressure mounted on Monday evening for the swift announcement of full results from presidential and parliamentary polls. Earlier on Monday, the United Kingdom-based Institute for War and Peace Reporting said that Mugabe was to announce victory.
President Robert Mugabe and his ruling Zanu-PF party were to announce victory on Monday in the country’s parliamentary and presidential elections, according to unofficial results leaked from the Zanu-PF and Zimbabwe Electoral Commission command centres.
Zimbabwe’s opposition was level with President Robert Mugabe’s party and two of his ministers lost their seats on Monday as election results trickled out, but counting delays fuelled suspicions of rigging. The opposition Movement for Democratic Change said unofficial tallies showed Morgan Tsvangirai had 60% of the presidential vote.
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 closed.
Zimbabweans woke up on Monday morning still not knowing if a new future had dawned on the country plagued by political and economic strife. On Sunday night, the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission headquarters — called the national command centre — was deserted while the commission insisted it was verifying votes.
Robert Mugabe on Monday was desperately trying to cling to power, despite his clear defeat in Zimbabwe’s presidential election, by blocking the electoral commission from releasing official results and threatening to treat an opposition claim of victory as a coup.
Zimbabwe’s opposition Movement for Democratic Change and ruling Zanu-PF were running neck-and-neck, according to the first election results issued by the Electoral Commission on Monday. The commission started announcing the results from Saturday’s election shortly before 7am after a long delay.
Will Mugabe accept the result? Zimbabweans didn’t so much speak in Saturday’s presidential election as shout so overwhelmingly that Robert Mugabe and the Zanu-PF party elite who came to believe in their unchallenged right to rule have been stunned into silence.
Robert Mugabe was desperately trying to cling to power on Sunday night, despite his clear defeat in Zimbabwe’s presidential election, by blocking the electoral commission from releasing official results and threatening to treat an opposition claim of victory as a coup.
The opposition claimed victory on Sunday in Zimbabwe’s election as concerns mounted over a delay to the results of a contest that could see President Robert Mugabe turfed out of office. Meanwhile, the election was a peaceful and credible expression of the will of the people, observers from the Southern African Development Community said.
A British mercenary awaiting trial in Equatorial Guinea for leading a failed 2004 coup has said the son of former British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher was involved in the plot, the public prosecutor said on Sunday. Jose Olo said former British special forces officer Simon Mann had testified that Mark Thatcher knew all about the scheme to overthrow President Teodoro Obiang Nguema.
Zimbabwe’s opposition said on Sunday it had won the most crucial election since independence, but President Robert Mugabe’s government warned that premature victory claims would be seen as an attempted coup. Tendai Biti, secretary general of the opposition Movement for Democratic Change, said that early results showed it was victorious.
Zimbabwe’s opposition claimed victory on Sunday based on early results from an election in which it is trying to unseat President Robert Mugabe after 28 years of power and end an economic collapse. ”It’s a historic moment for all of us. We have won this election, we have won this election,” said Tendai Biti, secretary general of the main opposition Movement for Democratic Change.
If this was the day that the big change would take place, Harare did not look the part. If it weren’t for the posters and the tent structures for polling stations on open land, one would be forgiven for thinking this was just another sleepy public holiday in the capital of Zimbabwe.
African observers charged on Saturday that they had discovered fraudulent voters rolls in the Zimbabwe election, listing more than 8Â 000 apparently non-existent people. Marwick Khumalo, head of the Pan African Parliament, said that in one Harare constituency, ”8Â 450 [voters] have been registered under block 081083 … which is a deserted land with a few scattered wooden sheds”.
Polls began closing in Zimbabwe on Saturday after voters cast ballots for Parliament and president with incumbent Robert Mugabe battling to extend his near three-decades rule. Reporters at polling stations said officers began closing doors at 7pm after 12 hours of voting but allowed people who were still queueing to cast their ballots
Eager to vote, Zimbabweans began lining up before dawn on Saturday for elections that present President Robert Mugabe with the toughest political challenge of his 28 years in power. The house of a ruling Zanu-PF parliamentary candidate in Bulawayo was reportedly bombed earlier in the day, shattering its windows.
Zimbabweans began voting on Saturday in the most crucial election since independence from Britain in 1980, with veteran President Robert Mugabe facing the biggest challenge of his 28-year-rule. Some voters slept at the polling stations while others began queuing before dawn. Voting began just after 7am and was scheduled to end 12 hours later.
To Robert Mugabe, Saturday’s presidential election in Zimbabwe is not so much a vote as war. From his campaign slogan — Get Behind the Fist — to speeches invoking the liberation war against white rule, the president of Zimbabwe has defined his campaign to extend his 28-year rule as the final struggle against British imperialism.
It is a matter of hours to go before voting stations open for Saturday’s elections in Zimbabwe. The Mail & Guardian Online spoke to South African political parties and NGOs ahead of the controversial poll. ”Mugabe will rule again. It would be a miracle if he didn’t,” said the Inkatha Freedom Party’s Musa Zondi.
Zimbabwe’s security forces were placed on full alert on Friday to head off possible violence at this weekend’s elections as President Robert Mugabe’s opponents feared the outcome had already been fixed. With state media predicting a Mugabe win, human rights groups said there was no way the electoral process could be said to reflect the will of the people.
Zimbabwe state media predicted on Friday a crushing victory for President Robert Mugabe in weekend elections as his two main challengers made fresh allegations that the result may be rigged. Citing an eve of poll survey by university researchers, the Herald said Mugabe was set to win 57% of the votes.
If Saturday’s election in Zimbabwe was really free and fair, Robert Mugabe would surely be packed off to his luxurious retirement home in Harare. It is a measure of how little faith Zimbabweans have in the electoral process that both Mugabe and the opposition are gearing up instead for a post-election showdown.
The economy is in ruins, the population live in misery and he faces the most formidable challenge of his 28-year rule, yet Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe could still cling to power in Saturday’s elections. Critics say Mugabe has enough control of the electoral machinery to retain power, with the decisive backing of police and army.
Restoring inflation-ravaged Zimbabwe to its previous status as a model of economic prosperity could take more than a decade, presidential challenger Simba Makoni said ahead of this weekend’s elections. In an interview late on Wednesday, he said he wanted to banish the climate of fear that he says now pervades the nation.
Zimbabwe’s main opposition leader pledged on Wednesday to revamp the country’s crumbling economy by introducing a new currency within six months if he wrests the presidency from Robert Mugabe in weekend elections. ”The economy is dead,” Morgan Tsvangirai, leader of the Movement for Democratic Change, told thousands of supporters in Murewa.