Tuesday, April 01, 2008

Zimbabwe Elections Bulletin: VP Mujuru Wins Seat; MDC Claims Discredited; PAP Gives Approval; Security Tightened

VP Mujuru not defeated

By Mutongi Gava
03/31/2008 14:39:13

DOUBT was cast on election data provided by Zimbabwe’s opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) on Monday night after it emerged that Vice President Joice Mujuru had in fact comfortably retained her parliamentary seats, quashing MDC claims she had been beaten.

On Sunday, MDC national chairman Lovemore Moyo claimed Mujuru was one of several ministers in President Robert Mugabe’s cabinet who had been defeated by opposition candidates in last Saturday’s general elections.

But official results released by the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission (ZEC) on Monday night showed Mujuru had scored a comprehensive 13 236 votes, leaving the MDC’s Gora Madzudzo trailing with 1792 votes in the rural Zanu PF fortress of Mt Darwin.

Another Zanu PF big hitter, Saviour Kasukuwere, claimed by the MDC to have been defeated, easily retained his seat, polling 9105 votes to beat the MDC’s Joel Mugariri with 3698 and Independent Taodzera Maxwell with 380 votes.

Higher Education Minister Stan Mudenge also won the Masvingo North constituency, the results showed.

The latest released results had Zanu PF ahead with 26 seats to the MDC’s 25, and a single seat for the Arthur Mutambara faction of the MDC from Bulilima East where Norman Mpofu edged it by a mere 76 votes.

Results continued to trickle in late Monday, over 36 hours after polls closed. The opposition MDC continued to make claims it had won the elections, accusing election officials of delaying results in order to rig, a charge the ZEC denies.

The results have already confirmed Justice Minister Patrick Chinamasa lost to an MDC candidate in Makoni Central. The MDC had also made significant inroads into what is traditionally Zanu PF strongholds – claiming Zaka West, Zaka East, Zaka Central, Mazoe Central and Chipinge East.

Chinamasa was trounced in Makoni Central by John Nyamande of the MDC. Chinamasa polled 4 050 to Nyamande’s 7 060 votes.

Another Zanu PF heavyweight who fell by the way side is Public Affairs Minister Chenhamo Chimutengwende who lost the Mazowe Central seat to the MDC.

The MDC was also won in Mashonaland West, Mugabe’s home province. They claimed the Kadoma Central seat with 8 180 votes compared to 2 738 for Zanu PF.

The MDC was also dominant in urban areas, although that is not much of a surprise.

But where Zanu PF is strong, like the hinterland Uzumba, they posted wide margins over opposition candidates which could be a key factor in the presidential election count. In Uzumba, Zanu PF polled 13 306 to the MDC’s 2 156. In Maramba-Pfugwe, which used to be joined with Uzumba, Zanu PF drew 14 916 votes to the MDC’s 1947.

Election results were expected to continue being announced late into Monday, and early Tuesday with analysts predicting the presidential election results could be further delayed.


More African monitors give qualified thumbs-up to Zimbabwe polls

By DPA
Mar 31, 2008, 18:34 GMT

Harare - A team of 19 monitors from the Pan-African Parliament (PAP) on Monday gave a qualified thumbs-up to Saturday's election in Zimbabwe, in which President Robert Mugabe's 28-year rule hangs in the balance.

The PAP election observation mission told a press conference in Harare it had noticed several irregularities but said these 'were not so major as to compromise the flow of the electoral process.'

'However, the mission is concerned that two days after the closure of the polls, the overall outcome of the elections remains unknown,' Marwick Khumalo, the chairman of the mission, said.

'The post-election phase, including the announcement of results, remains a concern and needs to be closely monitored,' he added.

Among the irregularities noted by the PAP observers were the handing out by Mugabe of tractors, ploughs and other gifts on the campaign trail.

'The timing of such generosity was unfortunate,' said Khulamo, who also decried statements by the country's security chiefs vowing they would not salute a Western 'puppet' - Mugabe's term for his two main opponents - MOrgan Tsvangirai of the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) and former finance minister Simba Makoni.

'These statements violate the professional ethics of the security forces and goes against the spirit of the democratic electoral process by its intimidatory nature,' said Khumalo.

The Movement for Democratic Change has claimed an outright victory in the polls, but official results are still pending.


Riot police in Harare townships amid poll tensions

Mon Mar 31, 2008 6:25pm EDT
By Cris Chinaka

HARARE (Reuters) - Riot police in armored carriers deployed in two of Harare's opposition strongholds on Monday night as suspicions grew that President Robert Mugabe was trying to rig Zimbabwe's most important election since independence.

A resident of one of the townships said a convoy of riot police in about 20 vehicles moved through the vast area. "There are a lot of patrols here," said the resident, adding people had been told to stay off the normally teeming streets.

More than 48 hours after polls closed, only 66 of 210 parliamentary constituencies had been declared, showing the ruling ZANU-PF one seat ahead of the main opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC). Two of President Robert Mugabe's ministers lost their seats.

No results have been announced for the presidential vote, in which Mugabe faces the most formidable political challenge of his 28 years in power.

The opposition has accused the veteran leader of delaying the issuing of the results in a bid to steal the election, which Zimbabweans hoped would help rescue a country ravaged by an economic crisis.

"It is now clear that there is something fishy. The whole thing is suspicious and totally unacceptable," MDC spokesman Nelson Chamisa said.

An independent Zimbabwean election monitoring group forecast Morgan Tsvangirai, leader of the largest faction of the MDC, would win the most votes in the presidential poll but not by a big enough margin to avoid a second round.

The Zimbabwe Election Support Network (ZESN) said its projections giving him 49.4 percent were based on a random sample of 435 polling stations across the country's 10 provinces.

It predicted Mugabe would win 41.8 percent and ruling ZANU-PF party defector Simba Makoni would get 8.2 percent.

Seven European countries and the United States expressed concern over the delay, and called on Zimbabwe's Electoral Commission to quickly release the results, especially for the presidential election.

Electoral Commission chairman George Chiweshe said the slow pace was due to the complexity of holding presidential, parliamentary and local polls together for the first time.

"FAIR AND CREDIBLE"

Mugabe, 84, is under unprecedented pressure from a two-pronged attack by veteran MDC rival Tsvangirai and Makoni, who both blame him for Zimbabwe's ruin.

Zimbabweans are suffering the world's highest inflation of more than 100,000 percent, chronic shortages of food and fuel, and an HIV/AIDS epidemic that has contributed to a steep decline in life expectancy.

And although the odds seemed stacked against Mugabe, in power since independence in 1980, analysts believe his iron grip on the country and solid backing from the armed forces could enable him to ignore the results and declare victory.

He rejects vote-rigging allegations.

The U.S. State Department called on Zimbabwe's electoral commission to put aside "partisan sympathies" and "follow the letter and spirit of the law".

Marwick Khumalo, head of an observer group from the Pan-African parliament, said the elections themselves were free, fair and credible overall.

But he added: "The mission is concerned that two days after the closure of the polls, the overall outcome of the elections remains unknown."

Official results so far showed ZANU-PF with 31 seats, MDC with 30 and a breakaway MDC faction with five.

The MDC said its tally showed it had won 96 parliamentary constituencies out of 128 counted. Makoni had 10 percent of the unofficial presidential vote count.

The MDC said unofficial tallies showed Tsvangirai had 60 percent of the presidential vote, twice the total for Mugabe, with more than half the results counted. Private polling organizations also put Tsvangirai well ahead.

"In our view, as we stated before, we cannot see the national trend changing. This means the people have spoken, they've spoken against the dictatorship," MDC Secretary-General Tendai Biti said.

In his first public comments since the vote, Makoni criticized the way results were being announced. "We are very worried by the manner in which things are unfolding," he said.

Tsvangirai and some international observers accused Mugabe of stealing the last presidential election in 2002.

Justice Minister Patrick Chinamasa and Public Affairs Minister Chen Chimutengwende both lost their seats.

The government has warned that any early victory claim would be regarded as an attempted coup.

(Additional reporting by Stella Mapenzauswa, Nelson Banya and Muchena Zigomo, Paul Taylor in Brussels, by Tabassum Zakaria in Washington and Adrian Croft in London; James Mackenzie in Paris; editing by Michael Georgy and Mary Gabriel)

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