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ZIMBABWE: MDC refuses to throw in towel, says election rigged
IRIN News
April 02, 2005

http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=46432

HARARE, - Zimbabwe's ruling ZANU-PF party's resounding poll victory, clinching two-thirds of seats in parliament, has been condemned as a sham by the main opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC).

ZANU-PF won 78 of the 120 contested seats, while the MDC slumped to 41 - down from the 58 seats it captured in 2000 in its maiden election - and an independent candidate took one.

President Robert Mugabe is due to appoint a further 30 deputies in the 150-seat parliament, giving him the numbers required to introduce constitutional changes.

MDC leader and former trade unionist Morgan Tsvangirai said on Saturday the election was flawed and the party would be consulting its members on the way forward.

"The MDC is a mass political movement that cannot die simply because it has lost a flawed election. We are considering many forms of action ... We have a genuine cause to act upon and we shall do just that," Tsvangirai told IRIN.

The police warned last week, ahead of the election on Thursday, that they would not tolerate any post-poll disturbances.

The United States and Britain have also described the ballot as unfair, pointing out that although it was generally peaceful on polling day, the electoral process was heavily skewed in the government's favour.

US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice summed up the concerns: "The election process was not free and fair. The electoral playing field was heavily tilted in the government's favour. The independent press was muzzled; freedom of assembly was constrained; food was used as a weapon to sway hungry voters; and millions of Zimbabweans who have been forced by the nation's economic collapse to emigrate were disenfranchised."

A South African observer team said on Saturday the elections reflected the "free will" of Zimbabweans but stopped short of calling them fair.

ZANU-PF political commissar Elliot Manyika dismissed claims of
vote-rigging and voter coercion as "absolute nonsense". He told IRIN the alleged politicisation of food aid was a lie aimed at tarnishing the image of the country and government.

President Mugabe, who throughout the election portrayed the MDC as a puppet of former colonial power Britain, was reported as saying ZANU-PF's victory confirmed the confidence Zimbabweans had in his party, which has ruled for 25-years.

"We enjoy the support of our people based on the fact that we brought independence to the country," he told a press conference.

Having achieved a two-thirds majority, Mugabe, 81, said he would push forward with plans to amend the constitution and introduce a second chamber of traditional leaders, retired politicians and other eminent Zimbabweans.

Critics have alleged the new senate would be packed with loyalists ahead of his retirement: Mugabe is also reportedly likely to alter the law allowing him to pick a successor without having to hold fresh elections.

While ZANU-PF has consolidated its political position, Mugabe has not won the endorsement of western governments - key to ending his country's isolation and restarting the financial aid Zimbabwe desperately needs to help ease its economic plight.

"The major problem is that the result will not change Zimbabwe's relations with the rest of the world. African observers will declare the elections free and fair but western countries and trading blocs, all crucial partners in the country's donor-driven development programmes, have already declared the election a sham," noted economist and political analyst Erich Bloch.

"Economic problems will undoubtedly get worse. Inflation will rise to unprecedented levels as the country needs to import food, fuel and many other basic necessities. Industrial production has declined to its lowest levels, there is nothing to stimulate growth," commented Bloch.

Donors suspended aid in response to the violence surrounding the government's fast-tracked land redistribution programme, and the 2000 election. But relations had already soured over Zimbabwe's inability to stick within agreed spending targets.

Pro-democracy activist Brian Kagoro said the government was aware of the need to shift gears on the economy, and tackle the current food shortage following yet another poor harvest.

"Key in their minds is no longer [their political] survival, but reversal of the economic crisis - which if it continues could be their undoing - and engagement with the international community."

The leadership of the MDC, however, faces searching questions over its inability to score with the ballot box - when seemingly presented with an open goal in the form of the government's economic record.

"The MDC has lost its relevance. It needs to replace its top leadership, especially the presidency, if it is to turn its fortunes around. There is also a high likelihood of some MDC officials defecting ... to ZANU-PF," suggested Bloch.

In mitigation, the Zimbabwe Human Rights Forum (ZHRF) - a grouping of local NGOs - alleged that a ZANU-PF victory was a foregone conclusion given the built-in advantages the party enjoyed in the electoral process.

It noted the drafting of loyal security force personnel into the electoral bodies running the poll, and the increase in constituencies in ZANU-PF dominated regions and their reduction in MDC strongholds.

The ZHRF also suggested that a culture of impunity had played a role in influencing voting patterns.

"Although it was not as endemic as in previous elections, the sporadic violence disrupted opposition campaigns, lowered the visibility of the opposition and its supporters, discouraged potential candidates from standing and scared voters away from the opposition."

It also said over three million Zimbabweans living in mainly Britain and South Africa, who were likely to be sympathetic to the opposition, were disenfranchised through the government's decision to reject postal votes.

In response to the ZHRF's allegations that Zimbabwe had failed to comply with Southern African Development Community electoral protocols, ZANU-PF commissar Manyika said they were mere guidelines which no country was compelled to follow.

"Those guidelines are not the laws of Zimbabwe. We still have [electoral]observers in the country and I believe they are better placed to say if the guidelines were violated," said Manyika.

He described ZHRF as a western-funded, anti-Zimbabwe appendage of the MDC.

Kagoro said that given the severe constraints the MDC faced, the labour-backed party could be congratulated for making inroads into rural areas, traditionally ZANU-PF territory, and winning back some constituencies it had previously lost. "It's an indication of what could have happened in a genuinely free election".

Tsvangirai said the party had fresh evidence of government rigging which would be released on Sunday.

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