Zimbabwe opposition supporters face the prospect of a heavy crackdown by security forces on Tuesday if they heed a call to launch a general strike to show their disgust at long-delayed election results. Police have been deployed throughout the country in anticipation of the strike.
Zimbabwe’s post-election crisis intensified on Monday after a high court judge threw out an opposition demand for the immediate release of results from the March 29 presidential polls. The opposition reacted angrily to the ruling, urging Zimbabweans to show their disgust at the hold-up by launching a general strike from Tuesday.
Zimbabwe’s High Court on Monday refused to order the immediate release of delayed presidential election results, in a major blow to the opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC). Rejecting an MDC application to force the electoral commission to release the result, Judge Tendai Uchena said: ”I dismiss the case with costs.”
A judge on Wednesday wrapped up hearing an opposition petition demanding the immediate release of Zimbabwe’s presidential election results and said he would deliver his judgement on Monday. ”Conscious of the urgency of the matter, I should be ready for a judgement on Monday afternoon,” Justice Tendai Uchena told the High Court in Harare.
The Zimbabwe opposition’s bid to build up pressure on President Robert Mugabe after disputed polls bore fruit on Wednesday as plans were unveiled for a weekend summit to discuss the crisis. The president of neighbouring Zambia said he would gather his peers for talks on Saturday, aimed at breaking the deadlock that has persisted since the March 29 polls.
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.
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.