By Kevin Spak
Results haven’t been officially announced yet in Zimbabwe’s just-completed presidential election, but President Robert Mugabe’s main challenger is already decrying the entire affair as a “huge farce” and declaring the outcome “null and void,” the BBC reports. “It’s a sham election that does not reflect the will of the people,… …read more
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Regional observers said Zimbabwe’s election was “orderly and fair” despite charges of vote-rigging by allies of veteran President Robert Mugabe as vote counting got underway Thursday. …read more
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Casting his ballot Wednesday, Zimbabwe’s Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai expressed confidence he will win an historic and overwhelming victory against his veteran rival President Robert Mugabe. …read more
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Zimbabweans voted Wednesday in elections that will determine the future of longtime President Robert Mugabe, who has denied allegations of vote-rigging and dismissed concerns about the credibility of the polls. …read more
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Zimbabweans are voting in elections that will determine the future of longtime President Robert Mugabe, who has denied allegations of vote-rigging despite concerns about the credibility of the polls. …read more
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Supporters of veteran President Robert Mugabe voiced confidence that his 33-year-rule will be extended Wednesday, when Zimbabweans vote in elections that many opponents fear will be rigged. …read more
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South Africa’s President Jacob Zuma moved Sunday to rein in his top envoy on Zimbabwe’s political crisis following complaints by President Robert Mugabe about her. …read more
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Zimbabwean police on Saturday arrested a prominent rights lawyer running for parliament against President Robert Mugabe’s party in July 31 polls, a lawyers group said. …read more
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The Zimbabwe prime minister’s party said Tuesday it had lost faith in the country’s electoral commission after “chaotic and disorganised” special voting for security forces ahead of key polls.
Long queues and the late delivery of ballot papers marked the two-day early vote, which started Sunday for police officers and soldiers who will be on duty on July 31 when the rest of the country votes.
Many security force agents found themselves unable to vote, drawing condemnation from Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai’s Movement for Democratic Change (MDC).
“The process is chaotic and disorganised and has exposed ZEC (Zimbabwe Electoral Commission) as a body not ready to the task,” MDC secretary general Tendai Biti told a news conference.
In just over a fortnight, presidential and parliamentary polls pit incumbent President Robert Mugabe against his archrival Tsvangirai, 61.
Mugabe, 89, hopes to extend his 33-year-rule in the vote that will end the pair’s unity government formed after deadly disputed polls in 2008.
On Tuesday, police officers waited at the city hall in the capital Harare, hoping to cast their votes even though polls closed Monday night.
Presiding officers had been deployed late at most polling stations and MDC polling agents were chased away in eastern province Manicaland, said Biti.
“It’s a clear breach of the laws of Zimbabwe,” Biti added.
“We are really worried with (the) ZEC and have lost institutional trust in them. The junta has taken over and ZEC is no longer in charge.”
The MDC in the past has complained that former security force members — traditionally loyal to Mugabe — served on the ZEC.
The commission’s former head, George Chiweshe, used to be a brigadier general in the army.
Reports of rights abuses and intimidation of political opponents have implicated the security forces, which fall under Mugabe’s control.
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Zimbabwe security forces began voting in an early election on Sunday, with delays reported due to the lack of ballot papers just over two weeks before crucial presidential polls.
Voting was underway at one polling station in Harare where uniformed police officers waited while seated for their names to be called out to cast ballots under the watch of regional monitors.
But no ballots were being cast at another station at 1pm (1100 GMT) which had no vote papers, an AFP reporter witnessed.
Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai’s Movement for Democratic Change — which will seek to quash the vote in court on Monday — described the situation as “chaotic”.
“No ballot papers everywhere!” the party tweeted.
According to the country’s electoral body, about 87,000 people, largely police officers and soldiers who will be on duty on the election day, are set to vote on Sunday and Monday.
The High Court in Harare will on Monday hear a court challenge from the MDC on queries over the voters roll which seeks “to nullify the voting process today and tomorrow,” lawyer Harrison Nkomo told AFP.
President Robert Mugabe, in his 33rd year in power, will square off against Tsvangirai in the July 31 vote that will end their uneasy unity government which was forced by chaotic 2008 polls.
In previous elections security forces voted in barracks and police camps unobserved.
Security chiefs have openly showed support to the 89-year-old Mugabe of the ZANU-PF party and have blasted Tsvangirai as a stooge of the west.
The security forces, which fall under Mugabe’s control, have in the past been accused of rights abuses and intimidating political opponents.
In an advertisement in a Sunday newspaper, Tsvangirai urged the police and the soldiers to vote freely and said “we must be proud of you and not fear you”.
“Congratulations. You are exercising your right to vote in secret. So, feel free. Vote for your choice,” he said.
“After much lobbying, we managed to get through reforms which allow our men and women in uniform to vote in secret and away from the barracks, unlike in the past.”
Diplomats serving abroad will vote via the post.
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Zimbabwe’s political foes President Robert Mugabe and Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai traded barbs on Saturday in a bid to woo voters ahead of the July 31 election.
The rivals hit the campaign trail in the diamond-rich east of the country with less than three weeks before the ballot box ends their tense unity government forced by chaotic 2008 polls.
“The choice is very simple, it is between a failed government over the past 33 years and a promise of a future which is very bright,” said Tsvangirai, 61, in the town of Mutare, referring to Mugabe’s uninterrupted hold on power.
The 89-year-old Mugabe, clad in a white church robe and holding a biblical staff, appealed for support to thousands of members of an indigenous church in Marange, about 200 kilometres (125 miles) east of the capital Harare.
“We made a mistake in 2008 to vote for the people who love the white people. Voting for people who want to bring back the white people and thinking that there won’t be any development without white people,” he said.
The veteran leader has focused on indigenisation and black empowerment, arguing that Zimbabwe must own its vast natural resources.
Tsvangirai is promising voters to fix the economy, clean up murky dealings, revive industry and attract much needed investment to create employment.
Addressing thousands of supporters wearing red t-shirts with his portrait, Tsvangirai vowed to promote transparency in the diamond mining sector.
“Where is the diamond money going? We know that if we get all the money from diamonds we would create 100,000 jobs,” he said at a rally in a stadium in Mutare, 254 kilometres east of Harare.
“If all the diamond money comes through government we will be able to pay teachers and soldiers and not that the revenue benefit a few people.”
Tsvangirai also pledged to examine diamond mining contracts, with the treasury saying that gem sales proceeds are not reaching it.
“For all the companies mining diamonds, we will review the contracts because the current contracts promote corruption,” he said.
Mugabe too honed in on the country’s natural riches to push his message of indigenisation of the economy.
“The rich resources that our country is endowed with are for the black people, this is our country. And those who must rule this country must be black people,” he said.
Mugabe also attacked gay marriage, saying it was alien to Africa and criticised US President Barack Obama for urging Africa to respect gay rights on a recent visit to the continent.
“You heard it when Obama came to Africa saying Africa must allow gay marriages, even women to marry each other, so they can wed if they want,” he said.
“God destroyed the earth because of these sins. Weddings are for a man and a woman, who when married they bear children,” he said.
Mugabe who once said gays and lesbians are worse than pigs and dogs, said animals are better off because they know their sexual orientation.
Previous elections in Zimbabwe have been marred by bloodshed. Tsvangirai withdrew from a presidential run-off in 2008 despite winning the first …read more
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Zimbabwe’s electoral body on Saturday vowed to announce the results of the July 31 presidential polls, pitting veteran President Robert Mugabe against rival Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai, within five days.
Officials had delayed announcing elections results in 2008 for six weeks when Mugabe came second to Tsvangirai in the first round of the leadership race.
“The fifth of August is the date on which, come hail, come thunder, we must announce the results. That is what the law says,” said Rita Makarau, chairperson of the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission (ZEC).
Under a new constitution, the ZEC must announce the results of the presidential election within five days of voting, but results for members of parliament are issued earlier, she said..
In 2008, Tsvangirai’s first round lead fell just short of an outright majority , but Mugabe went on to be declared the winner of a presidential run-off which Tsvangirai had pulled out of in protest over violence.
The July 31 crunch vote will end the pair’s power-sharing government that was brokered with Mugabe as president and Tsvangirai as prime minister to end an economic meltdown after the 2008 polls chaos.
Tsvangirai has complained about the lack of implementation of key reforms in the electoral, media and security sectors that were agreed by the unity government partners.
On Sunday soldiers, police and essential services government staff on duty on election day cast their special vote ahead of the general public vote on July 31.
About 87,000 people are set to take part in the early vote.
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Zimbabwe‘s president says his nation won’t accept outside interference in crucial elections later this year and has urged Zimbabweans to vote peacefully to confound foreign critics.
President Robert Mugabe said Thursday his people have an obligation to “uphold and promote peace before, during and after” upcoming polls that are to end a shaky coalition with the former opposition.
“Go and vote your own way. No one should force you to vote for me,” Mugabe said at celebrations marking 33 years of independence from colonial rule at a Harare sports stadium.
Mugabe said he welcomed recent efforts by Western nations to reopen dialogue with Zimbabwe after years of isolation to protest political violence and rights abuses. But he warned against interference.
From: http://feeds.foxnews.com/~r/foxnews/world/~3/3BEjs07ZBOY/
Elections in Zimbabwe are still months away, but already President Robert Mugabe‘s party is intimidating its opponents and threatening violence, human rights and pro-democracy groups say.
Witnesses say Mugabe’s ZANU-PF party has begun deploying youth militia groups in some of its strongholds. A young mother in the Harare township of Mbare said militants of a pro-Mugabe youth group known as Chipangano, or “the brotherhood” in local slang, have started door-to-door visits in the neighborhood and told residents to attend night meetings where names and identity particulars of participants were written down.
“They are watching me every day,” she said, refusing to give her name because she feared violent retribution.
If she doesn’t go to the meetings with family members and friends her absence will be noted down on another list of suspected Mugabe opponents, she said.
Mugabe party officials say the logging of names is merely part of regular campaigning to keep supporters up to date with the party’s activities in the runup to polling.
Rugare Gumbo, the party’s spokesman, denied a campaign of intimidation was under way. He has accused Mugabe’s opponents of making “sensational” allegations to garner sympathy in the face of electoral defeat.
“We have become more and more aware of their machinations,” he said.
The independent Zimbabwe Peace Project, which monitors political intimidation and violence, reported in its latest bulletin Mugabe militants are also marking with stickers the homes of their supporters and new converts.
“There is no doubt those with stickers would be used to identify people (without them) who would then be victimized before and after elections,” the group said.
Mugabe’s party insists its members are free to display party loyalty and regalia during election campaigning, a common practice in most countries. But independent campaign monitors have reported rival fliers and posters being torn down and destroyed, mostly by militant youth groups.
Monitors representing both local and foreign rights groups say there is now burgeoning fear because Zimbabwe‘s elections have been marred by violence and alleged vote rigging since 2000, mainly by Mugabe’s party.
Actual physical violence this time around has been comparatively limited so far but there has been an …read more
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Zimbabwe‘s High Court orders the immediate release of a prominent rights lawyer detained for eight days for obstructing the course of justice.
Court officials said Beatrice Mtetwa was asked to post a $500 bail and her release papers will be prepared Monday.
High Court Judge Joseph Musakwa ruled that Mtetwa was following professional legal procedures when she demanded to see a search warrant from police at the offices of four officials in Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai‘s party. Those officials are accused of illegally compiling information on high level corruption and will appeal for bail later Monday.
Mtetwa and the four officials deny any wrongdoing.
Lawyers’ groups have cited the arrests as intimidation against opponents of President Robert Mugabe by loyalist police and officials ahead of elections around July.
A Zimbabwean magistrate says bail has been denied to a prominent human rights lawyer and must stay in jail until April.
The Harare magistrate said Wednesday that Beatrice Mtetwa, a citizen of Swaziland, is a flight risk and must be held in jail until her next court appearance.
Mtetwa was arrested Sunday and is charged with obstructing justice for trying to give legal representation to four officials in the party of Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai who were being arrested by police.
Police say that Mtetwa shouted at them. Mtetwa says that she merely told police that they were violating her clients’ rights by carrying out illegal searches. The four officials were also denied bail.
Mtetwa’s prolonged period in jail is seen as a crackdown on critics of President Robert Mugabe.
State radio in Zimbabwe says President Robert Mugabe has arrived in Rome for the inaugural mass of newly-elected Pope Francis.
Mugabe is the subject of a travel ban by European nations to protest his human rights record in a decade of political and economic turmoil in his southern African nation, but it does not affect his trips to the Vatican through Italy or United Nations meetings elsewhere.
A practicing Catholic, Mugabe, 89, joined world leaders at the 2005 funeral of Pope John Paul II who visited Zimbabwe on an African pilgrimage in 1988. At the Pope’s request then, Zimbabwe suspended criminal executions but hangings resumed nearly a decade later.
The radio said Pope Benedict XVI recently retired at age 85 “for reasons of physical and mental health.”
One campaign ad on the Internet shows video footage of a lawmaker in Zimbabwe‘s tenuous coalition government punching a Cabinet minister appointed by President Robert Mugabe. Another ad attacks the president’s rival and coalition partner, Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai, with a clip of him defending gay rights, an unpopular stance in many sectors of Zimbabwean society, during a television interview.
Ahead of a vote Saturday on a new constitution, Zimbabwe‘s main political camps are urging their supporters to approve it, making the outcome all but certain. But you wouldn’t know they were in agreement from the tone of some campaigning, which amounts to a test run for national elections slated around July, a high-stakes event expected to end coalition rule and determine whether Mugabe retains his tight grip after decades in power.
The referendum this weekend mirrors the hopes and fears of four previous elections marred by violence and vote-rigging since Tsvangirai, a former labor leader, founded his Movement for Democratic Change party, the first real challenge to Mugabe, in 1999.
All political groups have called for a ‘Yes’ vote on a constitution whose reforms would reduce presidential powers and grant more democratic rights, meaning the likelihood of widespread violence is minimal. However, even if the constitution is approved, arrests and harassment of rights and democracy activists this year by police loyal to Mugabe raise doubts about whether such changes would be seriously enforced.
The draft constitution, for example, imposes a limit of two five-year terms on the office of president but it is not retroactive, enabling Mugabe to rule for two more terms to age 99 if he were to win the next two elections.
Mugabe’s loyalists have posted United States-style presidential campaign advertisements on the Internet claiming that Tsvangirai’s Movement for Democratic Change Party even resorts to violence by punching and assaulting members of the Harare parliament while Mugabe spurns violence. Gay rights have been rejected by Mugabe, an outspoken critic of same sex partners he has described as “lower than pigs and dogs,” a well-received stance in many generally homophobic African communities.
Tsvangirai denies unequivocal support for gay rights but says the new constitution being voted on Saturday enshrines broader protection for equal rights among all Zimbabweans.
He has recently been on a high-profile campaign of daily rallies in favor of the referendum, while Mugabe has only touched briefly on the referendum at small public engagements.
Zimbabwe‘s official election body says it will not back down on its ban preventing a leading human rights group from monitoring a referendum on a new constitution on Saturday.
Acting head of the Electoral Commission Joyce Kazembe said Wednesday the Zimbabwe Human Rights Association is facing charges relating to alleged electoral offences and will not be cleared to observe the referendum.
ZimRights officials have been accused of the illegal possession of voter registration forms and fraud in obtaining them. The group denies any wrongdoing.
Most independent civic groups say they will boycott vote monitoring Saturday if any activists are barred access to observe polling.
Police loyal to President Robert Mugabe have intensified raids and arrests targeting activist groups in recent weeks and have seized equipment and documents from their offices.
Zimbabwe‘s finance minister says he will ask President Robert Mugabe to order diamond mining companies to pay millions of dollars into the nation’s treasury.
Finance Minister Tendai Biti told reporters Monday he is “losing patience” with the companies’ indifference in helping fund a constitutional referendum March 16 and elections in July.
Biti said at least $217 million is needed for both polls.
He said he had information that total diamond sales for 2012 amounted to $800 million but the state has only received only $45 million.
Diamond mining in eastern Zimbabwe has been mired in allegations of human rights abuses and illegal money laundering by Mugabe’s loyalists.
Biti said it was “criminal” that diamond mines and executives failed to submit their profits to the state.
