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Opposition cites Zimbabwe election fraud
(Agencies)
Updated: 2005-04-07 08:58
Zimbabwe's main opposition party said Wednesday an investigation into last
week's parliamentary election indicates massive electoral fraud in at least 30
seats won by the ruling ZANU-PF party.
The main opposition Movement for Democratic Change said that in 11 races the
winning ZANU-PF candidate got more votes in the official returns than the
government's own electoral commission said were cast.
A supporter of Robert Mugabe's
ZANU PF ruling party carries the Zimbabwean flag during Mugabe's last
electoral rally in Harare on the eve of parliamentary elections. The
United States stuck to its assessment that Zimbabwe's parliamentary
elections last week were neither free nor fair despite an endorsement by
the African state's neighbors.
[AFP/File] | In each case, the MDC said its
candidate had an unassailable lead, polling more than half the official total of
votes cast. However, the official returns showed 183,000 more votes than the
electoral commission said were cast.
"This election was stolen. The results are in no way an accurate reflection
of the sovereign wishes of the people of Zimbabwe," MDC spokesman Paul Themba
Nyathi said in a statement.
President Robert Mugabe's ZANU-PF party was declared the winner of 78 of
Parliament's 120 elected seats. The MDC got 41 seats, and one seat went to an
independent candidate. Under Zimbabwe law, Mugabe appoints 30 more members of
Parliament.
The U.S. Embassy also criticized the election Wednesday, issuing a statement
that expressed "particular concern at the lack of transparency in the tabulation
of vote counts" and the role of police and ruling party officials in polling and
counting.
Zimbabwe's President Robert
Mugabe speaks at a press conference at State House in Harare, 02 April
2005. [AFP] | Nyathi said the MDC limited its analysis to the 30 seats because the
electoral commission refused to release figures for other races, a decision he
said "indicates widespread irregularities" in those other areas.
In races in urban areas where the MDC was widely expected to hold its seats,
Nyathi said very few discrepancies were identified.
"This raises further suspicions that there was a calculated plan to ensure
that the MDC won a sufficient number of seats to provide the electoral process,
and the end result, with a veneer of legitimacy," said Nyathi.
The United States and Britain, which were not among the observers hand-picked
by Mugabe to assess the election, condemned the vote and said the process had
been tilted heavily in favor of the ruling party.
The U.S. Embassy said it deployed 25 teams of diplomats to observe the
election and noted that some polling stations were intimidatingly close to
police stations and ruling party offices and "appeared to be associated with
food distribution." At many of them, it said, up to 30 percent of would-be
voters were turned away.
The embassy also criticized the "silence of the Zimbabwe Election Commission
on crucial issues." It said the commission failed to release results from any of
the individual polling stations and did not explain the drastic discrepancies
between results and figures for number of votes cast.
British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw said the elections "were fundamentally
flawed and further weaken Mugabe's legitimacy."
"Some say this is about Africa versus the West. It is not," said Straw. "It
is about democracy versus dictatorship. Other Africans, too, have been saying
enough is enough."
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