Zimbabwe’s Health Minister, Dr David Parirenyatwa, armed himself with a Kalashnikov and threatened to kill opposition supporters forced to attend a political meeting unless they voted for President Robert Mugabe in a second round of the presidential election, according to witnesses.
The situation in Zimbabwe is dire and further talks are needed, government communications head Themba Maseko said in Cape Town on Thursday. He said it was ”not helpful” to discuss whether President Thabo Mbeki had said there was ”no crisis” in Zimbabwe, or whether he had been misquoted.
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.
The High Court in Zimbabwe was to rule on Monday on whether to order the immediate release of results of a March 29 presidential election in a judgement that could plunge the country into a general strike. All eyes will be on Justice Tendai Uchena as he decides whether to agree to an opposition request to immediately declare the result.
Zimbabwe’s official presidential election results may remain secret for at least another week while substantial numbers of votes are recounted in a move the opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) says is designed to overturn fraudulently Robert Mugabe’s defeat and his Zanu-PF party’s defeat in Parliament.
Zimbabwe’s High Court on Sunday ordered the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission (ZEC) to refrain from recounting the results of March 29 elections because the presidential results have not yet been announced. The ruling followed an announcement by the ZEC that it would carry out a partial recount of votes.
Southern African Development Community (SADC) leaders called on Sunday for the rapid release of results from Zimbabwe’s election after a two-week delay that has raised fears of violence. A 13-hour summit in Lusaka also called on President Robert Mugabe to ensure that a possible run-off presidential vote be held ”in a secure environment”.
An emergency summit of Southern African leaders on Zimbabwe’s post-election crisis opened on Saturday with a plea from its chairperson not to turn a blind eye, but President Robert Mugabe stayed away. Zambia’s Levy Mwanawasa told Southern African Development Community leaders that doing nothing was not an option.
South African President Thabo Mbeki said on Saturday there was ”no crisis” in Zimbabwe after holding his first face-to-face talks with Robert Mugabe since the country’s disputed March 29 elections. Mbeki had stopped in Harare on his way to join Southern African leaders in Zambia for an emergency meeting on Zimbabwe.
Zimbabwe raised doubts on Friday over whether President Robert Mugabe would attend an emergency regional summit on the weekend to discuss deepening concern over a post-election deadlock in the country. Officials had earlier said Mugabe was expected to attend the Lusaka summit on Saturday of the 14-nation Southern African Development Community.
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.
Opposition parties on Monday criticised President Thabo Mbeki’s assessment of Zimbabwe’s elections. Mbeki’s remarks, made in Britain on Sunday, indicated he was either woefully out of touch with reality in Zimbabwe or he was attempting to ”deliberately mislead the world’s media”, the Democratic Alliance’s Dianne Kohler-Barnard 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.
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.
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.
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’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.
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.
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.
Zimbabwe’s opposition was in contact with senior military and intelligence officials on Tuesday night to persuade them to respect the results of the election as pressure grew on Robert Mugabe, the President, to recognise defeat. Sources in the opposition Movement for Democratic Change said the contacts were aimed at winning the security establishment’s support.
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.
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%.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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
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.