The Zimbabwe 2013 Elections Thread

Early Voting enters second day

Police, soldiers and officials are lining up to vote across Zimbabwe for a second day after earlier polling was mired in chaos with ballot papers, ballot boxes and other materials not delivered in time on Sunday.

Officials of Zimbabwe's election commission said special voting for about 80,000 government personnel who will be on duty during the nation's crucial national elections on July 31 got off to a slow start Monday.

Electoral commission deputy chair Joyce Kazembe said no voting took place at some of the 210 polling stations countrywide Sunday because printing of election papers was delayed.

More than 9,000 voting stations are planned for full elections two weeks away.


Source : Sapa-AP /sdv/hdw/clh
Date : 15 Jul 2013 13:58 OrigID : LC134120
 
I must say, based on info and pictures I have seen, that I am impressed that Tsvangirai is able to campaign relatively effectively considering the repressive political climate. I think MDC actually stands a good chance.

Sadly, a peaceful hand-over of power would be naive to expect. Zanu-PF will resort to violence if they lose.
 
Fears of Rigging

Early voting began at the weekend in Zimbabwe ahead of elections on July 31 with security forces who are expected to keep the peace on polling day casting their ballots in advance.

But the procedure is being condemned by Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai, 61, who claimed the police voter rolls are inflated with thousands of fake names.

And, he said, it is just the opening salvo by the Zanu-PF party of President Robert Mugabe, 89, to try to rig the vote.

Tsvangirai challenging Mugabe, his coalition partner in government, for the presidency in the presidential and parliamentary elections.

Attempts by other governments in the region to have the vote delayed by two weeks to give the country more time to prepare have failed.

South Africa's top foreign envoy, Lindiwe Zulu, who has been at the forefront of regional efforts to ensure a clean vote, was referred to as a "street woman" by Mugabe in a recent public address.

Tsvangirai, the leader of the Movement for Democratic Change party, is unhappy that the vote is being organized hastily amid concerns that the security forces favour Zanu-PF and there is not enough oversight to ensure free and fair elections.

In addition, there are signs that pro-democracy groups are being hounded by the police, Amnesty International said.

In 2008 in the last general election in Zimbabwe, political rivalries descended into bloodshed with police accused of targeting the opposition. About 200 people died and thousands were arrested.

Regional governments subsequently forced Tsvangirai's MDC and Mugabe's Zanu-PF into a power-sharing government in early 2009, but MDC officials claimed Mugabe continues to run a shadow administration in parallel, siphoning off money for his own supporters.

Despite years of economic strife in Zimbabwe, Mugabe remains a popular figure for many.

Some Zimbabweans are pleased with his radical policies, including the seizure of white-owned farms over the past decade, and the more recent push to force foreign-owned companies to hand over a controlling stake.

The official reason for such moves is to redistribute wealth to black Zimbabweans, who were disenfranchised during the years of white-minority rule, which ended in 1980, when Mugabe took over.

But critics said the money is only being redistributed to Zanu-PF cronies of the president and that most people are not benefiting. Instead, foreign investors are being scared away, keeping out the capital needed to rebuild Zimbabwe's battered economy.

There is no clear front-runner in the presidential election with most people expecting a run-off in September.

Even in the parliamentary polls, if there is no massive fraud, it is unclear which of the two big parties would come out on top and how strongly smaller movements would perform.

With the election date only agreed to last month, there has been little time for campaigning and testing public opinion.

Unlike the last election, however, social media are providing a jolt to campaigning with some politicians investing heavily in new ways of getting their message across.

For the first time, the presidency has little control over what is being said about Mugabe inside the country. Normally, police would be quick to arrest people caught making fun of the longtime leader.

While this may be Mugabe's last campaign, analysts said Tsvangirai, a major player in Zimbabwe politics for almost 15 years, could also be facing the end of the road politically.

He has been tainted by concerns about his personal life. In addition, his years in government have had mixed results, and allegations of corruption have not passed over his party, once hailed as a beacon of reform.

"It is a watershed for both of them," said Pedzisai Ruhanya, a political analyst who heads the Zimbabwe Democracy Institute. "Anyone who slips up here will find it difficult to come back into Zimbabwean politics."

What happens to Zanu-PF after Mugabe can no longer serve as the party president is anyone's guess. But reports of infighting are rampant, including disputes between the civilian leaders and powerful military figures.


Source : Sapa-dpa /mr
Date : 16 Jul 2013 04:12
 
89 year old Mugabe hits the campaign trail

After 33 years in power, Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe is back on the campaign trail, where his advancing years are subtly starting to show.

On July 31 Zimbabweans will go to the polls to elect a president. One name, a permanent feature on ballot papers since independence in 1980, will again appear.

Robert Gabriel Mugabe -- born as the Ottoman Empire drew its final breath and when Calvin Coolidge was still in the White House -- has promised an election "fight for our lives".

On the stump his rallies still draw in crowds fired up by his trademark hour-long speeches that spit fire at his political opponents.

In the first 10 days of the campaign season, he has criss-crossed the country to address four rallies. But the 89-year-old's long innings have prompted some subtle changes.

His trademark walkabout has been dropped in favour of a wave to supporters from the back of van and as he harangues, berates and blusters, his elbows now lean heavily on a podium for support.

The adjustments -- a shift from the last election in 2008 -- stand in contrast to a man who a few years ago reportedly climbed several flights of steps with ease to get to his party office.

Though Mugabe appears vibrant and puffed up on his campaign posters, his slow step and demeanour tell a different story, adding to speculation about the health of Zimbabwe's most influential politician.

Analysts say he will rely on the machinery of state as he tries to ward off a challenge from long-time rival and presidential aspirant Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai.

"It's going to be taxing for him considering his age, but what will mitigate that is the state machinery that he has at his disposal," said Dumisani Nkomo, a political analyst based in Bulawayo.

That includes "unlimited" access to the state media. Official details of Mugabe's health are closely guarded.

Frequent medical trips to Singapore are purportedly for eye treatment linked to cataracts.

But two years ago WikiLeaks published a 2008 US diplomatic cable that pointed to more serious problems.

Back then, central bank chief Gideon Gono told the US ambassador that Mugabe had prostate cancer and had been told by doctors that he had less than five years to live.

Rumours about his health remain a subject of constant discussion on the streets of Harare.

"Going by recent media reports, there are concerns about his health," said Rushweat Mukundu of the Zimbabwe Democratic Institute.

"The party is slowly coming to terms with the fact that their leader is not only frail but no longer in a position to stand the rigours of the election campaign."

With an almost three decades age difference, Mugabe's main rival Tsvangirai has taken a dig at the veteran leader's age.

"We will break records in this world to elect a 90-year-old into government," Tsvangirai, who is 61, told a rally. "Zimbabwe will be recorded in the Guinness book of records."

Syd Eckley chairman of the South African Gerontological Association in Pretoria describes Mugabe as "extraordinary".

Addressing large audiences especially in election crusades is a "major strain" on the body of an old man, "and the one question I have is 'are we certain he is 89?' Because (he) is extraordinary."

"But he sees himself like many other older persons and one problem with older persons is that... they don't want to relinquish control, especially men," said Eckley.

That is just fine with Mugabe's staunchest followers, who vow to back the liberation war hero to the very end.

"I will continue to vote for him until amen," said Melody Shumba, a 23-year-old mother of three from the northeastern Chiweshe farming district.

For his political foes however, Mugabe's longevity, coupled with a determination to stay in power at all costs, is a constant thorn in the side.

Shadrack Gutto, professor at the University of South Africa's Centre for African Renaissance Studies says there are no signs that Mugabe will give up power.

"Mugabe has shown that he's not ever willing to leave that seat until he dies. And that is the problem," said Gutto.

"If he goes for elections and wins, Zimbabwe will have a president with mental limitations and really getting worse and worse."

If he is re-elected, Mugabe will finish his new term at the age 94.

If, as the law allows, he wins another five-year tenure, he will be done at 99. He once joked that he would retire at 100.

The only other African leader known to have ruled into his 90s, was Malawi's former "life president" Hastings Kamuzu Banda.


Source : Sapa-AFP /mr
Date : 16 Jul 2013 03:21
 
Zim Early Voting Queried

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.


Source : Sapa-AFP /sdv/hdw/th
Date : 16 Jul 2013 15:23
 
NomNom said:
I have a good feeling that Tsvangirai will win this time.
Click to expand...

Basically he won the last time. ;) What did it help?

Africa's stooges in the circus limelight. What a joke and really dark blot in the history of humanity.
 
Last edited:
Zimbabwe Arrests Top Rights Lawyer

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.

Arnold Tsunga, vying for a seat in the eastern city of Mutare, was detained together with his campaign team allegedly for holding an unauthorised rally, the Zimbabwe Lawyers for Human Rights said.

"They are currently detained at Dangamvura police station and the police have indicated their intention to transfer them to Mutare Central Police Station," the group said in a statement.

Police were not available to comment.

Tsunga is running for the Movement for Democratic Change of Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai, Mugabe's archrival.

The lawyers association said another MDC activist and lawyer, Jacob Mafume, was barred from holding a campaign rally in a Harare suburb.

Zimbabwean parties are preparing for the July 31 vote, which will end the uneasy coalition between Tsvangirai and Mugabe born of the power-sharing deal that followed deadly 2008 post-election violence.

The run-up to the elections has been marred by a slow voter registration that left thousands off the roll and a chaotic special vote for the security forces.

Right groups have warned of political violence and intimidation as both leaders ramp up their campaigns.

Under Zimbabwe's security laws political gatherings or marches have to be sanctioned by the police but rights groups and opposition activists complain that rule is never enforced for Mugabe's Zanu-PF.

Mugabe, at 89 the world's second oldest head of state, is seeking another mandate at the helm of the troubled country, which he has ruled since independence in 1980.


Source : Sapa-AFP /dm
Date : 20 Jul 2013 17:47
 
nivek said:
Not a chance
Not while Mugabe is in charge of the entire election process
Click to expand...

Or still alive. Hopefully this time he'll get an triple heart attack when Tsvangirai wins.
But seriously, how is he able to live so long and still has a mind set to rule?
 
Mugabe vows to 'cripple' new satellite TV station
Zimbabwe's first independent television station was due to go on air on Friday in a challenge to the 30-year state broadcasting monopoly controlled by President Robert Mugabe.
.......
.......
.......

The state Herald newspaper reported that George Charamba, Mugabe’s spokesman, said South Africa will be asked to stop broadcasts believed to be beamed from there because they “hurt Zimbabwean interests” ahead of elections on July 31.

“We are alive to this connection and we will be taking decisions mindful of the need to cripple this pirate television broadcast station,” he said.
Click to expand...
SOURCE

WTF??
 
Tsangvirai Warns Election Body

Zimbabwe's Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai on Sunday warned the body overseeing this month's presidential election he will be "closely monitoring" it to ensure a fair vote.

He said vote rigging would only happen if it was allowed by officials from the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission (ZEC).

It was up to them to ensure fair play on July 31, said Tsvangirai.

"The rigging can only occur when officials at ZEC are dishonest," he told thousands of supporters gathered in a stadium in Gweru, south of the capital Harare.

"We will be closely monitoring this because we have to protect the vote, we have to protect the voter and we have to protect the outcome of the vote."

His warning came as concerns mount that the election will not be free and fair.

A scheduled early vote by the country's security forces descended into chaos as thousands of police and soldiers were unable to vote by the time the two days of polling closed last Monday evening.

Election officials blamed the disruption on problems associated with the printing of ballot papers.

"We are concerned that Zimbabwe Electoral Commission (ZEC) fails to print ballot papers so that police and soldiers vote without chaos," he said.

"All those issues undermine the integrity of ZEC.

President Robert Mugabe called early elections, hoping to prolong his 33 years in power.

The crucial vote will end the uneasy power-sharing government formed by the two leaders in 2009, after a lengthy regional mediation.

During his address, Tsvangirai accused Mugabe of plotting to rig the vote.

He also criticised Mugabe for his recent attacks on the Southern African Development Community (SADC) mediation team led by South African President Jacob Zuma.

Mugabe on Saturday accused the bloc of lying about the political situation in Zimbabwe, including the country's preparedness for the vote.

Tsvangirai won the first round of the 2008 vote but failed to get a clear majority, resulting in a run-off between himself and Mugabe. He later pulled out of the race citing violence against his supporters.

Zimbabwe has been mired in a political crisis which resulted in the collapse of the economy, following Mugabe's appropriation of white-owned farms.

Tsvangarai said his government would uphold the rule of law and promised to compensate the victims of political violence.

"There must be truth. Its only when you say the truth that you are able to get justice, and without justice you cannot heal,"he said.

He said his government would provide free education to primary school children and improve health facilities.


Source : Sapa-AFP /sdv
Date : 21 Jul 2013 20:17
 
Organisers Insist Zim Ready for Vote

Zimbabwe election authorities insisted Tuesday that they would be ready to hold general elections in a week's time, despite fears of vote rigging and a lack of funding.

"Elections will be credible, free and fair. We are ready for the elections," the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission's deputy chairwoman Joyce Kazembe told election observers.

The ZEC said 6.4 million voters -- or around half the country's population -- will be eligible to cast their ballot on July 31.

The presidential vote will pit veteran leader President Robert Mugabe against his rival Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai.

But early voting for the security services has already been marred by problems. Shortages of ballot papers and voting ink meant thousands were unable to cast their ballots.

Kazembe said of the 63,268 people who were eligible to vote in the early polling, only 37,108 voted.

Many of the delays have been blamed on the ZEC only securing roughly half of the $132 million polling budget they had asked for from the cash-strapped government.

"Out of the budget we wanted, we have received $58 million. But nothing has stopped us from moving," ZEC commissioner Bessie Nhandara said.

Concerns have also arisen about the chaotic state of the voter roll, fuelling fears of fraud and irregularities.

Voter registration only closed two weeks ago, raising questions about whether an accurate voter roll will be ready for election day.

"The registrar-general of voters is currently working flat-out to print the voters roll in time," said Kazembe.

In June the Research and Advocacy Unit, an independent non-governmental group, claimed one million people on the roll were either dead or had left the country.

It also found that 63 constituencies had more registered voters than inhabitants and two million potential voters under 30 were unregistered.

About 600 foreign election observers have been accredited to observe the polls while 6,000 local observers will also be watching the vote.

Foreign observers are drawn mainly from the African Union (AU), the Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa (COMESA) and the Southern African Development Community (SADC).

Zimbabwe did not invite observer missions from European Union countries or the United States because of sanctions imposed on Mugabe and his top officials for rights abuses.

But all foreign embassies in Zimbabwe including those from the EU countries and the US will be allowed to send five diplomats each to observe the elections.

The 89-year-old Mugabe, who is vying to prolong his 33-year-rule, will be running for the seventh time.


Source : Sapa-AFP /sdv/hdw/th
Date : 23 Jul 2013 16:07
 
Tsvangirai Warns of Election Fraud

Zimbabwe Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai on Friday warned that next week's election was strongly at risk of being rigged, as he condemned the African Union's upbeat assessment of the poll preparations.

"There is clear evidence of manipulation," Tsvangirai told a news conference in Harare. "There is a desperate attempt to subvert the people's will."

The premier also criticised "the militarisation" of the polls, saying military drivers were used to transport ballot papers during an early voting exercise.

His comments came just five days before Zimbabweans vote in the first presidential polls since violence tainted elections in 2008.

Tsvangirai is vying the end the 33-year-rule of his rival President Robert Mugabe.

The lead-up to the July 31 election has been marred by flawed voter registration, chaotic early polling for security forces, and lopsided campaign coverage on state media.

A special advance vote held on June 15 and 16 for police officers and soldiers saw polling stations open without ballot papers, leaving thousands unable to cast their vote.

Tsvangirai claimed his party had also discovered that some of the ballot papers that were cast then were later thrown in dustbins.

The head of the African Union on Friday expressed confidence that the early problems would be overcome.

"On the whole we got the impression that the preparations were satisfactory," said AU commission chairperson Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma.

"We think they will be able to manage," she said. "They gave us an explanation of why things went wrong. They called it a nightmare but it's a nightmare that's behind them."

Tsvangirai called the claims "misleading".

"It's unfortunate that statement was made because the truth of matter is that I raised a number of issues with her of concern to the MDC," he said, referring to his Movement for Democratic Change party.

"I raised the issue around the chaotic voter registration which has led to thousands if not a million people to be disenfranchised. I raised the issue of chaotic special vote, the way it was conducted.

"I said these are concerns that have implications on the credibility and legitimacy of the election.

"For one to say that none of the principals have raised these issues, it's not only unfortunate but it's downright misleading."


Source : Sapa-AFP /nsm/hdw/th
Date : 26 Jul 2013 14:37
 
Tsvangirai again a thorn in Mugabe's side

This Wednesday Morgan Tsvangirai will get his third crack at dethroning veteran Zimbabwean leader Robert Mugabe.

It may be his last.

In 14 years at the helm of the Movement for Democratic Change, the 61-year-old ex-trade unionist, has made his party the only credible alternative to Mugabe's ZANU-PF.

In consecutive elections in 2002, 2005 and 2008 Tsvangirai has run Mugabe close.

Last time out he won 47.9 percent of the vote to Mugabe's 43.2 percent.

In a fair race, he may well have won outright. But an orgy of violence against allies forced him out of the hunt before the final round of voting.

For his troubles Tsvangirai has been arrested repeatedly, been charged with treason and faced four suspected assassination attempts.

In 1997 assailants tried to throw him out of his office window.

His bodyguard has been killed and his wife died in a suspicious car crash that also hospitalised him.

He retains a strong following among urbanites and Zimbabweans in rural of the western part of the country.

But even among supporters, there is a lingering sense that Tsvangirai has repeatedly been outmanoeuvered by Mugabe, even when the international community forced Mugabe to accept him as prime minister.

After more than four years of a forced unity government, most meaningful levers of power -- from the security services to the judiciary -- remain under Mugabe's control.

Tsvangirai has been criticised for offering Mugabe legitimacy by participating in polls that have repeatedly been rigged -- and for failing to mobilise mass protests that could shift the terrain in his favour.

And on his watch, the MDC has split into two rival factions, draining energy and valuable votes.

He has managed to forge an alliance with Simba Makoni, a former finance minister and senior official of Mugabe's party, who came third in the first round of the 2008 elections.

"This will be a do-or-die election for him," said Eldred Masunungure, a political scientist at the University of Zimbabwe.

"After being at the helm of the party since September 1999, if he loses, then surely he must consider dropping the hat for someone else."

While he is widely seen as a champion of democracy, recent scandals surrounding his love life, including a public divorce, have put a dent in his popularity.

He "gets distracted by a whole lot of things, including personal issues," said South African analyst Moeletsi Mbeki, who has known Tsvangirai since the 1980s.

The does little to help strengthen his fight especially facing a "very powerful adversary" like Mugabe.

"Morgan has been learning on the job while fighting against... Mugabe (who) is the one of the cleverest politicians in Africa."

Mbeki thinks that "in fact Morgan has done reasonably well given the lack of experience he started off with."

The teetotal, non-smoking Tsvangirai rose to political prominence via the trade union movement.

After working for 10 years at Bindura Nickel Mine he became leader of the country's largest labour federation, spearheading national strikes in the 1990 against Mugabe's economic policies.

He was born in 1952, the son of a bricklayer in the southern town of Gutu, as the oldest of nine children.

He grew up in the eastern district of Buhera but family poverty forced him to quit school early and earn a living to enable his younger siblings to get an education.

Unlike most of Zimbabwe's politicians of his age and older, Tsvangirai did not take part in the Chimurenga liberation war against white colonial rule.

He was 28 when Zimbabwe won independence from Britain in 1980.

Under Mugabe's rule, he was detained twice for his political activism and was twice cleared of treason charges.

In March 2007, he was among dozens of opposition activists assaulted by police as they tried to stage an anti-government rally, and suffered head injuries.

Just three weeks after taking office as the premier, his first wife Susan died in a car crash that also left him hospitalised.

There are increasing signs his long struggle has taken its toll.

"I don't have the 'I-will-not-go' attitude. When my days are done, I will go and leave these young ones (to it)," Tsvangirai told thousands of supporters on Sunday.


Source : Sapa-AFP /dm
Date : 29 Jul 2013 05:04
http://www.news24.com/Africa/Zimbabwe/Tsvangirai-again-a-thorn-in-Mugabes-side-20130729
 
Succession questions loom amid Mugabe re-election bid

A victory for Robert Mugabe in Zimbabwe's presidential elections this week would raise the prospect of him ruling well into his 90s, enflaming a succession battle that already quietly rages.

You don't rule a country -- especially one as volatile as Zimbabwe -- for 33 years without knowing a thing or two about seeing off rivals.

Since taking up the reins of a newly independent Zimbabwe in 1980, Mugabe has for three decades deftly brushed aside opponents and, with power consolidated, kept subordinates in their place.

He started with Joshua Nkomo, a man many considered to be the father of the modern nation.

Mugabe's ZANU and Nkomo's ZAPU kicked out the white-minority government after a long bush war. A brief co-habitation followed.

But ultimately it was Nkomo who fled the country, accused -- with the aid of some suspect intelligence operations -- of plotting a coup.

His supporters in Matabeleland were brutally crushed by North Korean trained forces, in a operation that killed around 20,000 people and become known as Gukurahundi -- the early rain that washes away the chaff.

Since then a series of elections saw Mugabe retain power by hook or crook, repeatedly seeing off Morgan Tsvangirai, who he will again face on Wednesday.

Again critics doubt the vote will be free and fair, and few doubt the outcome.

But perhaps the fiercest battle will take place behind the scenes.

Throughout his rule, Mugabe has steadfastly refused to name a successor.

The lack of a clear a clear heir has in recent years spelt jockeying within ZANU-PF between two camps, one led by Vice President Joice Mujuru and the other by hardline Defence Minister Emmerson Mnangagwa.

After losing the first round of the 2008 elections, there were reports that Mugabe was prepared to accept defeat, but was pushed by allies in the security forces to hang on.

It was the military that reportedly led the violent campaign in the lead up to the run-off election which Tsvangirai boycotted following the killing of some 200 of his supporters.

Wrapping up his election campaign on Sunday, Mugabe showed no sign of changing tack, claiming he would have the energy to run in 2018.

His failure to pick and groom a successor "means he cannot trust anyone in ZANU-PF", according to Shakespeare Hamauswa of the University of Zimbabwe.

As a result, if he is handed back power on Wednesday he likely continue to recycle the stalwarts who have served him for decades and a playbook that has served him throughout his political life.

Born on February 21, 1924, at a Jesuit mission northwest of the capital Harare, Mugabe was described as a studious child. He qualified as a teacher at the age of 17.

He took his first steps in politics while studying at Fort Hare University in South Africa, where he met many of southern Africa's future black nationalist leaders.

He taught in Northern Rhodesia (now Zambia) and later in Ghana -- where he was profoundly influenced by the country's founder president Kwame Nkrumah. It was also there where he met his first wife Sally.

As a member of various nationalist parties which were banned by the white-minority government, Mugabe was detained in 1964 and spent the next 10 years in prison camps or jail.

But he used his incarceration to gather three degrees, including a law degree from London, via correspondence.

He also used that time to consolidate his position in the Zimbabwe African National Union and emerged from prison in November 1974 as the party leader.

He skipped the border for Mozambique, from where his banned party staged a guerrilla war against the white minority colonial Rhodesian regime.

Economic sanctions and war forced Rhodesian leader Ian Smith to negotiate.

After that ZANU, which drew most of its support from the ethnic Shona majority, swept to power in the 1980 election.

In 2000 Mugabe launched controversial land reforms, driving thousands of white farmers off their land.

Some of the white farmers were accused of joining forces with his Western foes in a campaign to topple him, using the opposition MDC as a front.

The white farmers were replaced by hundreds of thousands of black farmers including his cronies and army veterans.

The chaotic process plunged the former regional breadbasket into a decade-long crisis, with most rural dwellers relying on food handouts.

Under pressure to end the crushing economic decline, Mugabe entered into an agreement with Tsvangirai to form a unity government.


Source : Sapa-AFP /dm
Date : 29 Jul 2013 05:03
http://www.brecorder.com/top-news/1...estions-loom-amid-mugabe-re-election-bid.html
 
Tsangvirai Aide Arrested for Reporting Dumped Ballots

Zimbabwean police on Sunday arrested an aide to Morgan Tsvangirai, President Robert Mugabe's main rival in upcoming polls, after he reported an irregularity in early voting.

The Movement for Democratic Change said Morgan Komichi was arrested after informing the electoral commission that ballot papers marked for Tsvangirai had been found in a dustbin after security forces voted at the Harare International Conference Centre two weeks ahead of nationwide polling on July 31.

"Around 6:00 am (0400 GMT) our deputy national chairman, Honourable Morgan Komichi, who is a deputy minister of transport, was picked up at his home by the police," the MDC's Nelson Chamisa told reporters.

Police spokeswoman Charity Charamba confirmed the arrest just three days before general elections that will end an uneasy unity government between Mugabe, 89, and his archrival Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai.

"Yes, he has been arrested," she told AFP.

Komichi, Tsvangirai's delegate at the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission (ZEC), this week handed the polling panel an envelope with ballot papers in favour of Tsvangirai.

The MDC said several such ballots had been dumped in a dustbin at the conference centre where security forces, who will be on duty in Wednesday's polls, voted early on July 14 and 15.

Now police threaten to charge Komichi for contravening electoral laws if he refuses to reveal his source.

"As long as he refuses to disclose the identity of this person the police will hold him accountable, therefore he becomes the prime suspect," said Charamba.

"This is a very urgent and serious matter that will have bearing on the election process and therefore cannot be left for any other time except now."

The discovery of the papers added to fears of vote-tampering that Tsvangirai has raised in recent days.

But Mugabe branded Tsvangirai a "cry-baby", pledging the polls will be legitimate.

"It's going to be free and fair. We are not forcing anyone to vote this way or that way," Mugabe told reporters after addressing his final campaign rally in Harare.

Zimbabweans vote for a new president and parliament on Wednesday, four years after Mugabe, who has ruled the country since independence in 1980, and Tsvangirai were forced to share power.

"Vote, vote, vote in peace, peace peace, peace. We want peace," Mugabe told around 40,000 supporters at his rally at the National Sports Stadium.

But as campaigning wrapped up, the MDC's Chamisa accused the ZEC of launching a witch hunt instead of dealing with the dumped ballot issue.

"There is no denial of the fact that indeed it's an authentic ballot paper and indeed the ballot paper was found in the dustbin, but of course they want to know the whistle-blower," Chamisa said.

"We believe that ZEC and not Komichi have a lot of questions to answer," he added.

"If there is any investigation, the theatre of investigations is supposed to be ZEC."

"The development we have witnessed seriously demonstrates a dent on the credibility of this election," he said, questioning the electoral commission's neutrality.

Chamisa complained that the MDC, which won more votes than Mugabe's Zanu-PF in the 2008 parliamentary polls, has been denied important election-related information.

"The voters' roll has not been availed to us, we don't know who is printing the ballot papers," he said.

Violence erupted after the first round of the 2008 polls didn't deliver a conclusive winner. Mugabe said he was pleased that the election campaign has been devoid of violence so far.


Source : Sapa-AFP /mm
Date : 28 Jul 2013 20:51
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top
Sign up to the MyBroadband newsletter
X