Zimbabwe opposition ahead in the polls

Zimbabwe’s opposition Movement for Democratic change has won nine out of the first 10 parliamentary seats for which votes have been tallied, electoral officials said today.

Elections yesterday for the 120 contested seats in Zimbabwe’s parliament were largely peaceful. But opposition leaders and independent observers said the vote was skewed in favour of President Robert Mugabe’s ruling Zimbabwe African National Union-Patriotic Front, which they accused of intimidating voters ahead of the poll.

The seats won so far by the MDC were largely in urban opposition strongholds, and there was no word on how the party had fared in rural areas of Zimbabwe where the ruling party’s support is strongest.

But after an unusually peaceful campaign, the opposition was hopeful its supporters had come out in large enough numbers yesterday to overwhelm fraud and allow it to claim power from a ruling party seen as increasingly oppressive.

Charges in recent days that intimidation was rife, the electoral roll had been tampered with and large numbers were unable to cast ballots set the stage for a fierce debate over the results, expected to become clear today and tomorrow.

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

Mugabe accuses British Prime Minister Tony Blair and other Western leaders of backing the six-year-old MDC, the first party to seriously challenge his rule since he lead Zimbabwe to independence in 1980. He dubbed yesterday’s vote the “anti-Blair election,” and MDC supporters ”traitors”.

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

Opposition leaders blame the country’s economic woes on the government’s often violent seizure of thousands of white owned commercial farms for redistribution to black Zimbabweans.

Mugabe defends the program as a way of righting racial imbalances in land ownership inherited from British rule, and blames food shortages in what was a regional breadbasket on years of crippling drought.

Some 5.8 million of Zimbabwe’s nearly 12 million people were registered to vote. But up to 3.4 million Zimbabweans who live overseas – many of whom are believed to be opposition supporters – were barred from casting ballots.

George Chiweshe, a judge and former army officer who heads the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission, conceded charges from independent observers that voters were turned away, but said the problem was not as widespread as the observers believed.

The MDC complained that a number of its observers were refused entry to the polls. In at least one township, ruling party supporters blocked the road to a polling station with stones. Nervous residents whispered they were turning voters away.

Foreign observers – hand-picked by Mugabe from mostly sympathetic African countries – said any irregularities Thursday were minor. But independent analysts said the damage was already done.