Opposition claims early lead in Zimbabwe's election

Zimbabwe’s main opposition party has claimed an early lead in elections and says it is leading the presidential race against Robert Mugabe with 67% of votes.

Its assessment is based on returns from about a third of polling stations.

Secretary-General Tendai Biti of the Movement for Democratic Change says they have won nearly all parliament seats in the main cities of Harare and Bulawayo as well as in some traditional ruling party strongholds.

His announcement defies a warning from security chiefs against any unofficial announcement of election results. The opposition says it fears rigging.

The main opposition party said it made the announcement to thwart any attempt to rig the vote count. It claimed the lead included a rural stronghold of President Robert Mugabe.

The MDC said party leader Morgan Tsvangirai was leading the presidential race with 67 percent of votes, based on returns from 35% of polling stations. With three-quarters of Zimbabwe’s population in rural areas where Mr Mugabe garners most of his support, it was impossible to determine what those figures meant to the race.

Mr Biti told a news conference they based their claim on results from Saturday’s balloting posted on the doors of polling stations overnight, which party election agents sent by mobile phone text messages.

Police had tried to persuade the opposition leaders not to announce results, arguing that it was illegal. But the opposition party’s lawyers said the information already was in the public domain.

The announcement defied a stern warning from the southern African nation’s chiefs of security, who already have said they would not tolerate an opposition victory.

“We warn anyone of such inclination that we will not tolerate any such (unofficial election result) pronouncements as they have the effect of trying to take the law into their own hands thereby fomenting disorder and mayhem. Everyone is therefore advised to follow the law,” they warned on Friday.

Mr Biti said they had won nearly all parliamentary seats in the two biggest cities, Harare and Bulawayo, which was no surprise as those are opposition strongholds. But he said they also had won in Mashonaland West and Masvingo districts as well as the north-eastern town of Bindura, all areas where Mr Mugabe has swept votes in the past.

Bindura, a rural mining and agricultural centre, is home to the feared youth brigade of Mr Mugabe’s ruling party – tens of thousands of thugs known for beating up opposition supporters.

“The people’s victory is on course, beyond a shadow of a doubt,” Mr Biti said last night. “We have absolutely no doubt that we are winning this election.”

The elections presented Mr Mugabe with the toughest challenge ever to his 28-year rule. Voting was generally peaceful, with Zimbabweans standing in lines for hours, but African observers questioned thousands of names on the official roll.

The 84-year-old Mr Mugabe, in power nearly three decades, dismissed rigging charges.

“I cannot sleep with a clear conscience if there is any cheating,” he said on Saturday after voting and promising to respect results. “If you lose an election and are rejected by the people, it is time to leave politics.”

The Zimbabwe Electoral Commission chairman, Judge George Chiweshe, said he expected to announce later today results that were being collated in the capital. “This has been a more complicated election. We will be releasing the results as soon as we can,” he said.

But election observers who visited the commission’s headquarters early today said it appeared to have only a skeleton staff and appeared in no rush to release results.

Mr Biti, the opposition official, said, “The regime is at a loss and it is taking its time deliberately.” He said they were concerned by the delay.

If no presidential candidate wins 50% plus one vote, there will be a run-off.

Running against Mr Mugabe are Mr Tsvangirai, 55, who narrowly lost disputed 2002 elections, and former ruling party loyalist and Finance Minister Simba Makoni, 58. Mr Makoni threatens to take votes from both the opposition and the ruling party.

The economic collapse of Zimbabwe has dominated the campaign. A nation that once fed itself and helped feed its neighbours now has a third of the population dependent on international food handouts and money sent from refugees in the diaspora.

Unemployment is running at 80% – the same percentage surviving on less than one US dollar (50p) a day. Inflation is the highest in the world at more than 100,000% and people suffer crippling, sometimes lethal, shortages of food, water, electricity, fuel and medicine.

Opposition leaders accuse Mr Mugabe of dictatorship and destroying the economy. Mr Mugabe calls his opponents stooges of former colonial ruler Britain. He says the nation must make sacrifices to overcome its colonial legacy.

A parliamentary candidate for Mr Mugabe’s party in Bulawayo, Judith Mkwanda, reported two explosions outside her home that shattered windows just after midnight. Police said it was firebombed. No injuries were reported.

Mr Tsvangirai’s party said the home of one of its agents was set ablaze on Saturday in north-east Zimbabwe.

An observer from the Pan-African Parliament said the longest lines in Harare were at two polling stations on the edge of a vacant plot where 8,450 people had registered as residents.

The independent Zimbabwe Election Support Network’s monitors reported a heavy police presence at polling stations, ostensibly to help illiterate voters and allowed under a belated presidential decree that breaks an agreement signed with the opposition. The opposition said it was intimidation.

Mr Biti said opposition party agents had been barred from polling stations in several districts and that thousands of voters were turned away because their names were not on voters rolls or on flimsy excuses about identification particulars.

His party was investigating a report that six stuffed ballot boxes were found before voting got under way in one district.

Some 9,000 polling stations were set up for 5.9 million registered voters, but Biti said the real number was nearer 3.5 million because rolls were inflated with dead or fictitious people and some of the 5 million Zimbabweans who are economic and political refugees abroad.

Zimbabweans had 12 hours to vote for president, 210 legislators, 60 senators and 1,600 local councillors.

Zimbabwe barred several international media organisations from its elections and observers travelling from the US and EU.