Opposition cries foul in Zimbabwe election

ON the surface, it looked good. Zimbabweans lined up peacefully and cast votes in a general election that President Robert Mugabe says will vindicate his near 25-year rule.

But opposition leaders and independent rights groups said the poll was slanted before it started.

“We are not happy with the way the electoral playing field has been organised, and we all agree, on all benchmarks, this is not going to be a free and fair election,” opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai said as he voted at a primary school in a Harare suburb.

Under mounting international pressure to produce a credible result, Mr Mugabe’s government and party ratcheted down the bloodletting that has plagued previous elections.

For the first time in years, Tsvangirai’s Movement for Democratic Change party was able to campaign openly, even in the government’s rural strongholds.

Mr Mugabe was confident the gamble would pay off, saying he was “entirely, completely, totally optimistic” of victory for his Zimbabwe African National Union-Patriotic Front.

The MDC won 57 of parliament’s 120 elected seats in the last parliamentary election in 2000, despite what Western observers called widespread violence, intimidation and vote rigging. But it lost six seats in subsequent by-elections.

Mr Mugabe appoints an additional 30 seats, virtually guaranteeing his party a majority.

In 2002, Mr Tsvangirai was narrowly declared loser of an equally flawed presidential poll.

Zimbabwe’s economy has shrunk 50% over the past five years. Unemployment is at least 70%. Agriculture - has collapsed, and at least 70% of the population live in poverty.