Mugabe"s desperate bid to avert defeat

Original Post Date: 2002-03-14  Posted By: Jan

From the News Archives of: WWW.AfricanCrisis.Org
Date & Time Posted: 3/14/2002 1:28:08 AM
Mugabe"s desperate bid to avert defeat

Source:Cape Argus (SA)
published: Tue 12-Mar-2002

At a meeting on Sunday afternoon Mugabe was told that a higher-than-expected voter turnout meant Tsvangirai was all but assured of winning the popular vote.

Harare – President Robert Mugabe’s ruling Zanu-PF is reported to be seeking new ways to inflate its share of the vote after senior advisers apparently warned Mugabe he had lost the election. The arrest of two senior members of the opposition Movement for Democratic Change and four American diplomats on Monday was linked to this warning by sources quoted in the Times of London. The United States said on Tuesday it was lodging a strong protest with Harare over a flagrant breach of diplomatic conventions. Two of the four held for five hours were accredited election observers.

There was also growing speculation that Morgan Tsvangirai, the MDC leader, might soon be detained, the Times reported. “They may want to arrest me, and at worst kill me, but they will never destroy the spirit of the people to reclaim their power,” he told supporters. And as counting began, the head of the regional observer mission, Duke Lefhoko, on Tuesday denounced the abrupt closure of polling stations to end voting last night instead of allowing voters still queueing to vote. Lefhoko revealed that his observers had had to rescue as many as 30 MDC polling agents abducted by Zanu-PF supporters in Mashonaland West. The observers escorted them to Harare to vote.

The Times report on Tuesday said that at a meeting on Sunday afternoon Mugabe was told that a higher-than-expected voter turnout meant Tsvangirai was all but assured of winning the popular vote. The paper said a senior Zanu PF source, whom it could not name had divulged details of the meeting to the MDC. “Mugabe was told that the election was lost,” the unnamed source was quoted as saying. “Since then, they have been frantically looking for ways to get more votes.”

MDC officials said Mugabe’s desperate bid to cling to power began at 3pm on Sunday, at which time state television announced that 300 000 people had voted in the Mashonaland Central district, a ruling-party stronghold. Two hours later, at 5pm, the broadcaster said that 500 000 had voted there. MDC officials charged Mugabe was likely to use the extra alleged votes to stuff ballot boxes and tip the election his way.

The first arrest of a senior official on Monday came when Welshman Ncube, the MDC secretary-general was held near the border with Botswana in Plumtree. He has been accused of trying to flee the country because he is facing a treason charge. MDC officials are quoted as saying the party had decided to send its most senior officials to Botswana, South Africa and Zambia because they feared a big round-up by Mugabe after the voting. Tendai Biti, an MDC foreign affairs spokesperson, was arrested while touring polling stations in Harare, the MDC said.

In Washington, the State Department said on Monday that the US would protest to Zimbabwe “in the strongest terms” that police held four of its diplomats for four to five hours on Monday during polling at Chinhoyi, north-west of Harare. “This is harassment, in contravention of the international diplomatic norms by the government of Zimbabwe, and we view it as unacceptable,” said State Department spokesperson Richard Boucher.

In Harare, Lefhoko, who leads the South African Development Community contingent observing the polls, criticised the government for its sudden closure of polling stations after the third day of voting ordered by the High Court. “I don’t think that was a good thing at all,” Lefhoko said, “to shut people out who wanted to vote.” He said there had been a five-hour delay in the start of voting on Monday morning which the government had not adequately explained.

Lefhoko was commenting after the High Court sat for a second time last night to hear an application from the MDC for a second extension of voting. The MDC brought the challenge on the grounds that many voters had been denied the chance to vote on the first day of extended voting on Monday, because presiding officers in the Harare and Chitungwiza areas had delayed voting by five hours. But the High Court rejected the latest application.

Most had expected the polls in Harare and Chitungwiza would remain open late on Monday night to accommodate queues, but they shut promptly at 7pm or soon after. In some cases riot police used teargas to disperse voters. Asked for his general impressions of the freeness and fairness of the elections, Lefhoko said : “We have heard too many things.” But his team would pass judgement only after all its members had returned to Harare tonight and compared notes.

By contrast, the spokesperson for the SA Observer Mission, Mbulelo Musi, said today that most of the polling stations his team visited had completed voting when polls closed last night. “At the last stations we visited in Harare last night, officials were sealing boxes and there were no people in the queues. Boxes were sealed in the presence of electoral officers, monitors, observers – local and international – and also party agents. “It is apparent that procedures were followed. However we have received complaints that at other stations people were not able to vote, and we are verifying that complaint. “We are now focusing on counting as a critical part of our assessment of the entire electoral process. We will pronounce our general finding on the entire process by no later than tomorrow,” Musi said on Tuesday.

Counting is taking place at 120 constituency-based centres around the country and results are being transmitted from there to Harare, where the outcome is expected to be announce, possibly as soon as Wednesday.

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