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Zimbabwe announces first results as riot police deploy and opposition: claim victory
AFP/Desmond Kwande
The leader of the Zimbabwean opposition Movement for Democratic Change, Morgan Tsvangirai, casts his vote in Harare on March 29.HARARE
Petroleumworld.com, Mar 31, 2008Authorities began releasing the first results Monday from Zimbabwe's general election after being accused of sitting on the outcome in a desperate bid to help President Robert Mugabe cling to power.
With riot police deployed in Harare, the opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) and Mugabe's Zimbabwe African National Union - Patriotic Front (ZANU-PF) party were running neck-and-neck after the first six results from 210 parliamentary seats were announced by the electoral commission.
The MDC won the first seat to be declared, the newly-formed constituency of Chegutu West, around 100 kilometres (60 miles) west of the capital Harare, commission spokesman Utoile Silaigwana told reporters.
It won two of the next five seats to be declared, while the other three went to the ZANU-PF.
MDC leader Morgan Tsvangirai, who has endured beatings by the security services and a treason trial in recent years, is hoping to oust Mugabe in the simultaneous presidential election in the troubled southern African country.
The MDC had on Sunday accused the commission of deliberately sitting on the results in a bid to fix the election in favour of Mugabe who has ruled since independence from Britain in 1980.
"Mugabe has lost this election and they have gone back to the drawing board to try and cook up a result in favour of Robert Mugabe but we will never accept that," MDC general-secretary Tendai Biti told AFP.
Despite warnings from Mugabe's camp that pre-emptive declarations were tantamount to a coup, the MDC is adamant Tsvangirai has won and it has secured nearly all parliamentary seats in the two main cities of Harare and Bulawayo.
Fearing the kind of deadly violence which followed Kenya's disputed elections in January, the security services have been placed on alert throughout the country.
As people made their work on Monday morning, an AFP correspondent saw groups of riot police armed with batons and shields patrol the streets in the centre of the capital although there was no sign of unrest.
While the election was given a generally clean bill of health from a regional observer mission, a network of domestic organisations which had observer status on election day also raised fears the result was being fixed.
After determining the 2002 election was rigged, no representatives from European Union countries nor the United States have been allowed to oversee the ballot.
African countries have largely refrained from speaking out against a man who has ruled his country since independence from Britain in 1980.
In its report on the election, a team from the 14-nation Southern African Development Community (SADC) noted a number of concerns but ultimately declared the vote was a "peaceful and credible expression of the will of the people."
Tsvangirai claimed on Saturday his party had uncovered evidence of widespread vote-rigging, including the names of a million "ghost" voters.
As well as Tsvangirai, Mugabe is up against former finance minister Simba Makoni, who is expected to trail in third.
The elections come as Zimbabwe grapples with an inflation rate of over 100,000 percent and widespread shortages of even basic foodstuffs such as bread and cooking oil.
The 84-year-old Mugabe, Africa's oldest leader, has blamed the economic woes on the European Union and the United States, which imposed sanctions on his inner circle after he was accused of rigging his 2002 re-election.
Story by Godfrey Marawanyika from AFP
AFP 31 0707 GMT 03 08
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