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.
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 justice minister has dismissed as ”utter rubbish” claims by the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) that the political playing field is uneven ahead of national polls. Zimbabweans are preparing to elect a new president, Parliament and local councillors on March 29, but the MDC has expressed fears of vote rigging.
Zimbabwe police on Tuesday arrested opposition officials and a pilot delivering campaign material for Saturday’s general election at a small airport just outside Harare. An opposition parliamentary candidate representing Morgan Tsvangirai’s faction of the Movement for Democratic Change was among those arrested.
President Robert Mugabe on Sunday vowed that his main political rival would never rule Zimbabwe, as the opposition raised concerns that the governing party would rig the March 29 ballot. Meanwhile, opposition Movement for Democratic Change leader Morgan Tsvangirai drew the biggest crowd so far in the election campaign.
Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe warned the opposition on Friday against Kenyan-style violence if they lose next week’s election, saying security forces stood ready to crush such protests. The 84-year-old leader faces a stiff challenge from former ally Simba Makoni and long time rival Morgan Tsvangirai, leader of the main faction of the opposition Movement for Democratic Change.
Zimbabwe’s main opposition leader and presidential candidate in the March 29 general elections said on Thursday that the voters’ register is filled with tens of thousands of ghost voters. Morgan Tsvangirai, leader of the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC), also said that the voters’ roll was in a shambles and threatened to pull out of the elections.
South Africa will send a delegation of 55 observers to Zimbabwe’s general elections, the government said in Cape Town on Thursday. ”The South African contingent will comprise representatives from civil society, business, religious leaders, members of Parliament and government officials,” spokesperson Themba Maseko told journalists.
President Robert Mugabe is urging Zimbabweans to ”vote for the fist”. His campaign posters — portraits of Mugabe wearing an olive green military-type shirt and holding a clenched fist aloft — reflect his hard-line politics, and remind voters of the crack troops who have helped keep him in power for 28 years.
President Robert Mugabe’s supporters have used violence to intimidate opponents in the run-up to next week’s Zimbabwe election, undermining chances of a fair poll, Human Rights Watch said on Wednesday. Mugabe faces the strongest challenge to his 28-year rule in presidential, parliamentary and municipal elections on March 29.
Zimbabwe’s election body has no legal powers to stop security chiefs from threatening to reject an opposition victory in this month’s poll, a senior official said on Tuesday. Analysts say President Robert Mugabe faces the strongest challenge to his 28-year rule in presidential, parliamentary and municipal elections on March 29.
With her hand on her cheek, the 68-year-old woman gazes patiently at the cars racing past her, hoping someone will stop and buy the firewood at her feet so that she can feed her three grandchildren. MaNcube, as she is called in her village in Shangani, a dry arid land 360km west of Zimbabwe’s capital, Harare, has one plea.
When police collect obviously bruised and bloodied individuals from ruling-party headquarters and lay criminal charges not against the perpetrators of the bloodshed but their victims, there can no longer be even the pretence that the police are anything other than the ruling party’s agents.
A former finance minister challenging Robert Mugabe for the presidency denied on Sunday he was a Western puppet and said such accusations were to divert attention from Zimbabwe’s economic meltdown. Simba Makoni is running as an independent candidate after being expelled from the ruling Zanu-PF party.
Britain is preparing to expel hundreds of failed asylum-seekers back to Zimbabwe because the government believes they are at no ”general risk” in their home country. The mass programme of deportations could affect more than 1Â 000 Zimbabweans who have enjoyed protection under a moratorium on deportations.
Zimbabwe’s President Robert Mugabe has handed out millions of United States dollars worth of imported brand new agricultural equipment, vehicles, generators and cattle in what critics said was a massive vote-buying exercise ahead of elections this month.
Zimbabwe’s President Robert Mugabe has signed into law a Bill giving local owners the right to take majority control of foreign companies, including mines and banks, a government newspaper reported on Sunday. Analysts fear the move could sound the death knell for an economy that is struggling with the world’s highest inflation rate of more than 100Â 000%.
European Union member states and the United States have been excluded from a list of observers who will be invited to monitor the March 29 general elections in Zimbabwe, the government announced on Friday. The only European country that had been invited to send monitors was Russia, while the Commonwealth was also left off the invitation list.
Zimbabwe has invited 47 regional and sub-regional organisations as well as countries from Africa, Asia, the Americas and one European country — Russia — to observe this month’s election, the government mouthpiece Herald reported on Friday.
Former Zimbabwe finance minister Simba Makoni has said there will be no backlash against veteran President Robert Mugabe if he topples him at this month’s general election. ”President Mugabe is someone who has a very special place in our history,” Makoni said in an interview, ruling out retribution against Mugabe.
Zimbabwe President Robert Mugabe’s deputy, Joyce Mujuru, has thrown her weight behind the veteran ruler’s bid for a sixth term, dispelling speculation linking her to Mugabe’s rival, Simba Makoni. Mujuru was quoted by the state-owned Herald newspaper on Monday as saying: ”Firstly, you should vote for comrade Mugabe”.
Robert Mugabe’s iron grip on his ruling Zanu-PF party is being broken ahead of this month’s presidential election as senior party figures throw their weight behind an unprecedented challenge to Zimbabwe’s president from his former finance minister, Simba Makoni.
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/ 29 February 2008
Zimbabwe President Robert Mugabe on Friday predicted victory in presidential and parliamentary polls next month as he launched the election manifesto of his ruling Zanu-PF party. ”We certainly are going to win,” the 84-year-old leader told thousands of supporters at a rally in the capital, Harare.
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/ 26 February 2008
There is no dictator in Zimbabwe, just a lot of outside, unwelcome interference in the country’s affairs, the country’s ambassador to South Africa, Simon Khaya Moyo, said in Pretoria on Tuesday. ”Only the people of Zimbabwe can, through the ballot, tell the world who they think has their interests at heart,” he said.
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/ 24 February 2008
Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe celebrated his 84th birthday on Saturday at a rally aimed at boosting support before elections next month. A laughing Mugabe, wearing a garland of flowers and surrounded by supporters, hit out at the country’s ”enemies” who have criticised his presidency. Mugabe’s actual birthday was on Thursday.
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/ 18 February 2008
Zimbabwe’s ruling party, shaken by internal divisions and a potentially strong election challenge to President Robert Mugabe, will expel candidates running against its official nominees in the March vote, the official media said on Monday. An independent observer group, meanwhile, has reported widespread vote-buying attempts.
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/ 18 February 2008
The chance of a free and fair election in Zimbabwe is ”good” if all the agreements reached as part of the political facilitation process are implemented, Foreign Affairs Minister Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma said on Monday. Zimbabwe is due to hold joint parliamentary and presidential elections on March 29.
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/ 14 February 2008
Zimbabwe President Robert Mugabe is facing the most serious challenge to his 28-year rule as candidates, including his own former finance minister, register on Friday for a March 29 general election. Detractors accuse Mugabe of destroying the economy of this once-prosperous country and rigging the last three major elections.
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/ 13 February 2008
Zimbabwean opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai on Wednesday declared he would work with anyone who opposed the dictatorship of President Robert Mugabe while denouncing former ruling party presidential candidate Simba Makoni as tainted goods.
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/ 8 February 2008
The United States expressed ”serious concerns” on Thursday about the March 29 general elections in Zimbabwe, a country it finds under constant repression from President Robert Mugabe’s regime. Mugabe (83) who has ruled the former British colony since independence in 1980, is hoping to secure a sixth term in office.
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/ 8 February 2008
Zimbabwe’s former finance minister Simba Makoni — who announced his bid to challenge President Robert Mugabe in presidential elections next month — on Thursday taunted the octogenarian leader, suggesting he could unseat Mugabe as the ruling party’s candidate and stand for the presidency in his place.