Mugabe opposition claims early lead

Zimbabwe’s main opposition party claimed an early lead today in elections, including in some of President Robert Mugabe rural strongholds – an apparent effort to thwart any government attempt to skew the results.

But with no official results announced by sundown, tensions were rising in the capital, Harare. Riot police and other security forces were deployed to the densely populated suburbs, according to independent election monitors.

Voting in yesterday’s elections – which presented Mugabe, 84, with the toughest challenge ever to his 28-year rule amid a destroyed economy with a rate of inflation soaring beyond 100,000 percent – was generally peaceful.

Running against Mugabe were opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai, 55, who narrowly lost disputed 2002 elections, and former ruling party loyalist and Finance Minister Simba Makoni, 58, who has the potential to take votes from both the opposition and the ruling party.

However, African observers questioned thousands of names on the official voter roll, and the government has barred several international media organisations and some observers from the US and Europe.

The head of the Pan-African Parliament observer mission said he was sure most results were known. He warned election officials against a delay.

“We are trying to exercise as much constraint as possible so as not to contribute to the deteriorating security situation,” said Noel Kututwa, explaining why his Zimbabwe Elections Support Network, an independent monitoring organisation, was not releasing any results.

“Clearly the delay is fuelling speculation that something might be going on,” he said.

The opposition Movement for Democratic Change said party leader Tsvangirai was leading the presidential race with 67% of votes, basing its unofficial count on returns from 35% of polling stations nationwide.

However, with three-quarters of Zimbabwe’s population living in rural areas where Mugabe garners most of his support, it was impossible to determine what those figures mean to the race.

Reporters mobbed Electoral Commission chairman Judge George Chiweshe, demanding to know when he would start announcing official results. Others pursued him, shouting: “We want results.”

Chiweshe said it was taking time because Zimbabweans – for the first time - voted for president, the two houses of Parliament and local councillors, so four ballots have to be counted for each voter instead of one.

“This has been a more complicated election. We will be releasing the results as soon as we can,” he said, speaking at the hotel where the opposition held its news conference.

Election observers who visited the commission’s headquarters early Sunday said it appeared to have only a skeleton staff and seemed in no rush.

“The regime is at a loss and it is taking its time deliberately,” said Tendai Biti, secretary-general of the Movement for Democratic Change.

US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice branded Mugabe a “disgrace” today. Rice, in the Middle East for peace talks, said the United States had made clear its concerns about how the election might be conducted.

“But really, the Mugabe regime is a disgrace to the people of Zimbabwe and a disgrace to southern Africa and to the continent of Africa as whole,” she said.

Biti told a news conference that opposition leaders are claiming their lead based on results posted overnight on the doors of polling stations, which party election agents sent by mobile phone text messages.

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

People celebrated in the streets, giving each other the open-handed wave that is the opposition party’s symbol. Mugabe’s is a clenched fist. In Harare’s densely populated Mbare suburb, drivers hooted their horns as opposition supporters sang and danced. “Give Tsvangirai his chance!” they sang.

Hapisson Mate, a 23-year-old first-time voter, was worried: “Why are we not getting the results? It’s very clear to me Mugabe wants to steal this election.”

Police had tried to persuade opposition leaders not to announce any results, arguing it was illegal for anyone other than the Electoral Commission to do so. But the opposition party’s lawyers said the information already was public.

The announcement defied a stern warning from the southern African nation’s security chiefs, who already have said they would serve only Mugabe.

“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,” they warned on Friday.

Security and other government officials say they do not want to see a scenario similar to Kenya, where a delayed announcement of disputed December election results led to a spontaneous explosion of violence. More than 1,000 people were killed.

“I have no doubt that the large part – if not all – results are known,” Marwick Khumalo, head of the Pan-African Parliament observers, told South African Broadcasting Corp. TV.

Khumalo said the delay “creates anxiety” and has the potential of “upsetting a very peaceful electoral process.”

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

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

Mugabe dismissed rigging charges.

“We do not rig,” he said 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.”

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

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

Biti and his party said their agents and supporters were barred from polling stations in several districts, and cited stuffed ballot boxes and election rolls inflated with dead and fictitious people.

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

Observers from the Southern African Development Community called a news conference to announce the elections ``were in general a free expression of the people of Zimbabwe.''

The mission said it had some concerns, notably threats made by the country’s security chiefs, delays in producing the voters’ roll, the presence of police officers in polling stations and lack of impartiality in the state media.

Observers from the South African Democratic Alliance opposition party said they would not sign that report because it ignored “the fundamentally undemocratic environment.”

It said accounts from observers and other sources indicated the opposition “has won majority in most areas” and “if this is not reflected in the results, this will be yet another indication that the election was rigged.”