Mugabe’s Zanu-PF ‘wins majority’
3 Aug BBC
Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe’s party has won a huge majority in
parliament in this week’s elections, officials say.
With most seats declared, the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission said Zanu-PF
had won 137 seats in the 210-seat chamber, just short of two-thirds.
Results in the presidential race have yet to be announced.Mr Mugabe’s
main rival, Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai, has already dismissed the
election as “a sham”.Mr Tsvangirai, 61, who heads the Movement for
Democratic Change (MDC) and is running for president against Mr Mugabe,
said the vote was “null and void”.
A local monitoring group has also said that the poll was “seriously
compromised”.However, the two main observer groups have broadly endorsed
the election, saying it was free and peaceful.Earlier reports from the
Zimbabwe Electoral Commission (ZEC) said Zanu-PF had won 142 seats but
this was later corrected following some recounts.The AFP news agency
reports that 186 seats have been declared with 24 results still to come.
If Zanu-PF clinches a two-thirds majority it will be able to change
Zimbabwe’s constitution.
African Union (AU) mission head Olusegun Obasanjo dismissed the
complaints of fraud, saying the election was fair and free “from the
campaigning point of view”.He acknowledged incidents “that could have
been avoided and even tended to have breached the law” but added: “All
in all, up to the close of the polls, we do not believe that these
incidences (incidents) will amount to the result not representing the
will of the people.”The former Nigerian president added: “I have never
seen an election that is perfect. The process continues and we have to
limit our comments.”Monitors from the Southern African Development
Community (Sadc) described the elections as “free and peaceful” but said
it was too early to call them fair.
“In democracy we not only vote, not only campaign, but accept the
hard facts, particularly the outcome,” said Sadc mission head Bernard
Membe.The AU assessment sharply contrasted to that of the Zimbabwe
Election Support Network (ZESN) the largest group of domestic monitors
with some 7,000 people on the ground.It said on Thursday that the
elections were “seriously compromised”, with as many as one million
people unable to cast their ballots.The ZESN said potential voters were
much more likely to be turned away from polling stations in urban areas,
where support for Mr Tsvangirai is strong, than in President Mugabe’s
rural strongholds.
The group also alleged significant irregularities before the poll. It
said that 99.7% of rural voters were registered on the electoral roll in
June compared with only 67.9% of urban voters.
Zanu-PF and the MDC have formed an uneasy coalition government since
2009. That deal ended deadly violence that erupted after a disputed
presidential poll the previous year.Mr Mugabe, 89, is running for a
seventh term.
His Justice Minister Patrick Chinamasa said on Friday that Zanu-PF
was “headed for an unprecedented landslide”.
“If anyone is dissatisfied, the courts are there. I invite Tsvangirai
to go to court if he has any grounds to justify what he has been
saying,’’ he told journalists.
Under Zimbabwean law, seven days are set aside for legal challenges
with another two days for rulings to be made. After that, the
swearing-in of a new government takes place.The BBC’s Andrew Harding in
Johannesburg says some strong legal challenges are likely, with perhaps
a few results overturned. |
