President Robert Mugabe of Zimbabwe greets members of the Politburo of the ruling ZANU-PF Party on Friday, April 4, 2008.
Originally uploaded by Pan-African News Wire File Photos
Cris Chinaka
Harare, Zimbabwe
04 April 2008 05:20
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.
Zanu-PF lost control of Parliament for the first time in elections last Saturday, but no results have so far emerged from the presidential vote, prompting opposition suspicions that Mugabe is trying to engineer a way out of the crisis.
The opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) says Tsvangirai won an absolute majority in the presidential vote and should be declared president, ending Mugabe's long rule since independence in 1980.
Zanu-PF and independent projections show Tsvangirai winning the presidential vote but falling short of the absolute majority needed to avoid a run-off.
Announcing the Zanu-PF decision, party administration secretary Didymus Mutasa said parliamentary votes would be recounted in disputed areas.
Earlier, liberation war veterans -- a potent force backing Mugabe -- attacked the opposition for claiming victory. "These are all provocations against us freedom fighters," veterans' leader Jabulani Sibanda told a press conference.
He said the veterans would repel any attempt by white farmers to reclaim properties seized by Mugabe. "It now looks like these elections were a way to open up the re-invasion of this country [by the British]," he said.
Impatience
There is increasing impatience in Zimbabwe at a six-day wait for the results of the presidential election.
The MDC said it would ask the High Court to order the immediate release of the results.
Mugabe faces deep discontent as Zimbabwe suffers the world's highest inflation rate of more than 100 000%, a virtually worthless currency and severe food and fuel shortages.
The statement by veterans of a war against white rule in the 1970s appeared to refer to a report in the state-owned Herald newspaper saying there were reports of white farmers threatening to grab back their land.
Critics say the handing of the farms to inexperienced farmers and Mugabe cronies is a key reason for Zimbabwe's economic collapse.
Amid rumours that security forces planned to crack down on the opposition, Tsvangirai spokesperson George Sibotshiwe denied the MDC leader had gone into hiding.
"He had a meeting with diplomats today [Friday] and he is in his office. He has no reason to hide."
A run-off should be held on April 19, three weeks after the elections, but civil society groups said Mugabe plans to extend that to 90 days to buy time to regroup.
A statement by civil society organisations in Harare said they had "reliable knowledge" that Mugabe intended to extend the interval before a run-off, "using disputed and autocratic presidential powers".
The statement, read by human rights lawyer Lovemore Madhuku, expressed "gravest concern at the unacceptable delay in the release of poll results".
Concern
Meanwhile, the EU's Slovenian presidency on Friday called on Zimbabwe to issue the results of its presidential election "without further delay".
"The EU welcomes the fact that the results of the parliamentary elections have now been released and calls on the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission to ensure that the results of the presidential election are issued without further delay," the EU presidency said in a statement.
The EU presidency, which Slovenia holds for the first half of this year, said the EU was "closely" following the elections in Zimbabwe.
"It welcomes the determination of the Zimbabwean people to exercise their fundamental democratic right to vote in the elections on March 29," the statement said, also hailing the fact that polling day "proceeded without violence".
The EU presidency statement made no mention of the two foreign journalists arrested by Harare police on charges of breaching the country's tough media laws.
However, earlier Friday a spokesperson for the EU Commission, the bloc's executive arm, voiced concern at the arrests and said it was seeking information on the matter.
-- Reuters, AFP
Zimbabwe war vets threaten violence
by Wayne Mafaro Friday 04 April 2008
WAR veterans' leaders, Jabulani Sibanda and Joseph Chinotimba threatened to abandon process of democracy
HARARE--Zimbabwe war veterans on Friday threatened violence if the opposition insisted on claiming victory in a presidential election last week, in the first sign the veterans may be preparing to enter the fray in defence of embattled President Robert Mugabe.
The veterans of Zimbabwe's 1970s independence war are hardliner supporters of Mugabe whom he has used in the past to intimidate opponents.
War veterans chairman Jabulani Sibanda told journalists the former fighters may be forced to abandon the "process of democracy" if Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) party maintains it won the presidential vote before official results are announced.
Sibanda said: "The spirit of our people especially war veterans is being provoked by those in the opposition who have been announcing results of elections that are still being counted and calling themselves winners.
"The MDC figures are illegal and a provocation to the freedom fighters. We must not be pushed because we may be compelled to fail to continue the process of democracy."
Threats by the veterans come barely 24 hours after government security agents raided the offices of the MDC and rounded up foreign journalists Thursday in an indication Mugabe could resort to intimidation and violence to keep his grip on power.
Police raided a hotel used by MDC officials and ransacked some of the rooms. Riot police also surrounded another hotel housing foreign journalists and took away several of them.
Zimbabwe has been on knife-edge over the past six days after the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission (ZEC) failed to release election results for last Saturday's presidential election amid rising international pressure for the commission to release the results.
The MDC party beat Mugabe's ruling ZANU PF party in parliamentary elections and independent projections suggest the veteran leader also lost to the opposition party's leader Morgan Tsvangirai in the presidential election held concurrently with the vote for parliament.
Projections by local elections monitoring group, the Zimbabwe Election Support Network and by ZANU PF show Tsvangirai winning by less than 50 percent of the vote and under Zimbabwe's constitution a second round ballot should be held to determine a final winner.
Tsvangirai insists he won by more than 50 percent of the vote but has said he is ready for a run-off against Mugabe.
While some senior ZANU PF officials have indicated Mugabe will face Tsvangirai in the run-off, the 84-year old leader has himself remained mum on the matter. However, Mugabe was on Friday chairing a meeting of ZANU PF's inner politburo cabinet that is expected to decide whether he will contest a run-off.
Political analysts say Tsvangirai could easily beat Mugabe in a run-off between the two but warn that the three-week hiatus before a new vote could spark serious violence between security forces and militia loyal to the Zimbabwean leader on one side and MDC supporters on the other.
The belligerent veterans, who until now had been silent seemingly stunned by news of ZANU PF's defeat, warned they would use "whatever means necessary" to defend former white farms they were allocated by Mugabe's government.
Mugabe's government has claimed a Tsvangirai government will expel all blacks allocated land under the reforms and return farms to their former white owners.
The state media claimed on Thursday that some former white farmers were seen inspecting farms and warning black settlers they would be evicted once Tsvangirai came to power.
Sibanda said: "Those white people trespassing on the small-scale and medium-scale farms should know that it is an invasion of our country.
"We will defend our sovereignty. We will be compelled to repel that invasion. That invasion that it being caused on the farms should stop or it will be stopped."
There was no immediate comment from the MDC on the threats by the war veterans.
But Tsvangirai, who says Mugabe's land reforms were corrupt and unproductive, has promised to carry out a land audit and to repossess land from senior ZANU PF officials who grabbed more than one farm.
The MDC leader has said his government will carry out a transparent and equitable land redistribution exercise aimed at alleviating poverty and raising production. - ZimOnline
Zanu-PF backs Mugabe for run-off
Mr Mugabe appeared relaxed as party leaders prepared to meet
Mugabe in meeting Zimbabwe's ruling Zanu-PF party has given its backing to President Robert Mugabe's participation in a possible run-off vote.
The party's top leaders met to decide how to react to election results that have yet to be announced, six days after the presidential poll.
The opposition MDC claims its leader received enough votes to win outright.
There had been speculation that Mr Mugabe would stand aside rather than face a second poll.
The elections also saw the ruling party lose its majority in parliament for the first time since independence in 1980.
The MDC (Movement for Democratic Change) says it intends to ask the High Court to order the immediate release of results of the presidential poll.
It says its candidate, Morgan Tsvangirai, took 50.3% of the vote. An independent projection says Mr Tsvangirai gained 49%, just below the threshold, with Mr Mugabe on 42%.
Hundreds of Zanu-PF supporters - some of them veterans from the war against white rule that led to independence - marched through the capital, Harare, on Friday, the Associated Press news agency reported.
They said the MDC's victory claim was "a provocation against us freedom fighters".
The MDC said its offices in Harare were ransacked on Thursday. It denied that Mr Tsvangirai had gone into hiding and said he was "safe".
At least two foreign nationals were arrested in a police raid on a hotel in the capital, accused of working as journalists without accreditation.
One has been named as Pulitzer Prize-winning New York Times journalist, Barry Bearak. The other is said to be a British citizen.
Deputy Information Minister Bright Matonga said the authorities were trying to find out whether they were involved in espionage.
"They were taking pictures obviously of police and they annoyed the police who arrested them and we want to find out whether they are journalists or they are British or American agents - who are posing as journalists," he told the BBC.
The BBC's Grant Ferrett in Johannesburg says the raids mark the start of the campaign for a possible run-off and were intended to have a cooling effect on the opposition and the media.
'Galvanised'
Zanu-PF's secretary for administration, cabinet minister Didymus Mutasa, told the BBC's Network Africa programme: "We know them [results], there is a stalemate."
He said the party was prepared for a run-off and would be "galvanised" by the election results.
---------------------------------------
ELECTION RESULTS SO FAR
Presidential results:
None so far
Winner needs more than 50% to avoid run-off
Senate results:
Zanu-PF: 5
MDC: 5
Source: ZEC
-----------------------------------------
Mr Mutasa also said that Zanu-PF had won the Senate elections, the results of which must be announced before those of the presidential contest.
So far, 10 of the 60 Senate results have been announced, with each party on five seats.
It had been reported that Friday was the legal deadline for the presidential results to be announced but this has been denied by Zimbabwean constitutional experts.
In parliament, the MDC took 99 seats, while the Zanu-PF party won 97. A smaller MDC faction, which backed former Mugabe loyalist Simba Makoni in the presidential election, won 10 seats, leaving them with a potentially influential role.
However, Zanu-PF gained 46% of the vote in the parliamentary race, against 43% for the MDC, which supporters of Mr Mugabe say gives him hope of victory in a run-off.
Televised meeting
Mr Mugabe made his first public appearance since the elections on Thursday, when he was shown meeting election observers from the African Union in Harare on state television.
Former Sierra Leone President Ahmed Tejan Kabbah, who headed the AU observer mission, said Mr Mugabe had appeared
"relaxed".
Mr Tejan Kabbah said he had also met Mr Tsvangirai, according to AFP, prompting further speculation that some form of African mediation effort is under way.
Mr Mugabe, 84, came to power 28 years ago at independence on a wave of optimism.
But in recent years Zimbabwe has been plagued by the world's highest inflation, as well as acute food and fuel shortages.
Story from BBC NEWS:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/2/hi/africa/7329856.stm
Published: 2008/04/04 15:16:52 GMT
SA blasts media 'conspiracies' over Zim
Johannesburg, South Africa
04 April 2008 04:03
South Africa on Friday accused foreign media of orchestrating conspiracy theories by claiming delays in the release of Zimbabwe's poll results were a plot to steal that country's elections.
Addressing the diplomatic corps in South Africa, Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs Aziz Pahad condemned media reports that Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe was attempting to rig the election by delaying the release of results.
"What is a matter of serious concern is the orchestrated campaign, by sections of the international and South African media, to categorically claim that the delay is a plot by the government to 'doctor' and 'steal' the elections," he said.
Six days after voters went to the polls to choose between Mugabe and opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) leader Morgan Tsvangirai, tensions were growing in Harare amid silence over the outcome.
Parliamentary results were finally released on Thursday night, declaring the MDC the victor in the House of Assembly, while Mugabe and his lieutenants met to work out their strategy as the deadline to release results loomed on Friday.
The MDC, meanwhile, lodged a court application demanding an end to the silence over the outcome of last Saturday's presidential ballot.
Pahad defended the delay, saying the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission had "explained" that holding simultaneous elections for the president, Parliament and Senate had caused logistical problems.
"The media and many governments are aware that the possibilities of doctoring the results are limited by the fact that results were posted outside every polling station immediately after the votes were counted," he said.
Pahad said the international community and media should support the efforts of the Zimbabwean people instead of being "instruments of conspiracies and destabilisation".
Several foreign governments have criticised the delay over the release of the results, with the United States State Department on Thursday saying the hold-up was "concerning to us" and raising concerns about "the possibility of some kind of chicanery, or some kind of efforts to manipulate the balloting". -- AFP
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