• Final Result of Zimbabwe Election
• Opposition says Zimbabwe changed forever
• Zimbabwe opposition cries foul
• Zimbabwe veterans leader urges ZANU-PF overhaul
• Zimbabwe's election may be a botched robbery
• Zimbabwe's ruling party hangs on to power, despite strong opposition showing
• Opposition Mounts Stunning Challenge in Zimbabwe
• Post-election message from the MDC President Morgan Tsvangirai
• Breakdown of votes cast by province - June 24 - 25, 2000 elections
• Election Watch
• CFU Farm Invasion report - 27 June 2000

The MDC success comes too late to block the seizure of 804  farms for redistribution to landless black peasants, but  Tsvangirai said he would stop plans for an upper house in  parliament. Critics have accused Mugabe of wanting to fill the  proposed senate with patronage appointments.

Another farmer said the MDC had actually emerged as the true  winner of the elections: "People forget we are only nine months  old and that we have actually driven Mugabe into the corner."

Mugabe has set a target to seize nearly half the land owned  by whites, paying compensation only for improvements made to the  farms.

Zimbabwe's election may be a botched robbery

June 26, 2000
Web posted at: 5:51 PM EDT (2151 GMT)

By Tony Karon

So decrepit is the regime of Zimbabwe's President Robert Mugabe that his party may lose a parliamentary election despite an energetic campaign to steal it. In spite of Sunday's warning by European Union observers that the two-day election had been anything but "free and fair" in light of a systematic campaign of violent intimidation by the ruling ZANU-PF, eight of the first 13 seats reporting on Monday went to the opposition Movement for Democratic Change. This for a parliament in which the ruling party had previously controlled all but three of the 150 seats.

Those early returns point to a stunning reversal for the party that led the liberation war against white minority rule and has ruled the country, with Mugabe at its head, ever since independence 20 years ago. ZANU campaigned on the basis of its liberation war record, attempting to demonize the opposition by casting them as stooges of the country's 70,000 remaining whites. The centerpiece of Mugabe's campaign has been the mass occupation by squatters of some 870 of the country's 4,000 white-owned farms, which occupy the best 70 percent of Zimbabwe's arable land while millions of black subsistence farmers scratch out a living on the remainder. All this was accompanied by at least 40 killings, incidences of kidnapping and torture of opposition candidates, confiscation of identity documents and fraudulent alteration of voter rolls. But for many Zimbabwe's 5 million voters, the government's sudden interest in "redistributing" white farms is seen as a cynical attempt at exploiting rural misery to deflect attention from its own legacy of corruption, catastrophic economic mismanagement, military misadventures and violent suppression of dissent. (The peasants know best of all that many of the farms previously acquired by the government in land-redistribution programs became the property of Mugabe cohorts rather than being parceled out among the rural poor.) Early returns suggest Zimbabweans are no longer buying Mugabe's rhetoric, as an untested opposition party that risked life and limb by contesting all 120 seats up for election rides a wave of voter protest against the poverty and stagnation over which Mugabe has presided.

Not that the result, whatever it is, will make a jot of difference to the immediate plans of the man who has ruled Zimbabwe as a personal fiefdom for the past 20 years. "ZANU-PF will form the government whatever the results," the party's national chairman, John Nkomo, vowed over the weekend. "Mugabe can have a cabinet of just five if he wants. Mugabe is an institution." Indeed, the fact that some 20 percent of the seats are reserved for his appointees and that a two-thirds majority is required for a move to unseat him before the next presidential election in 2002 gives him legal cover to hang onto power. But "cohabitation," as the French call a situation when the presidency and the legislature are in the hands of rival parties, would unlikely be a comfortable fit for a Zimbabwean strongman for whom it portends the final humiliation two years from now. And the danger is that the greater the challenge Mugabe perceives, the more desperate he becomes: The land invasions and accompanying violence began only after Mugabe lost a referendum in February that would have dramatically increased his constitutional powers. Then again, for the ZANU apparatchiks whose well-being depends on control over the state, a mauling at the polls and the consequent escalation of domestic protests and international pressure could be the cue to retire the 75-year-old strongman.

Zimbabwe's ruling party hangs on to power, despite strong opposition showing

June 27, 2000
Web posted at: 5:20 a.m. EDT (0920 GMT)

HARARE, Zimbabwe -- The ruling ZANU-PF party managed to maintain its control of Zimbabwe's government, but the opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) made unprecedented gains in parliamentary elections held over the weekend.

Official final results released Tuesday show the ZANU-PF won 62 of the 120 seats in parliament that were up for election while the MDC won 57. The small independent ZANU-Ndonga party won a single seat, and President Robert Mugabe is allowed to appoint 30 seats himself to the 150-seat parliament.

Over the past 20 years, opposition parties have not held more than three seats in Zimbabwe's parliament.

Several high-level ruling party members lost their parliamentary seats, as did MDC leader Morgan Tsvangirai. But some observers believe this will give the opposition leader time to gear up for a challenge against Mugabe when the president's term expires two years from now, Hunter-Gault reprted.

Officials said the large turnout, estimated in excess of 3 million of the nation's 5.1 million registered voters, overwhelmed counting stations, leading to delays in confirming results.

CNN's Charlayne Hunter-Gault reports from Harare on the significnce of the Zimbabwe elections results

The turnout "was just too large ... more than twice as much as ever before," said Tobaiwa Mudede, the nation's registrar general.

As both sides waited for more results to come in, international observers from the European Union said the campaign was badly tainted by violence and could not be considered free and fair.

At least 30 people were killed ahead of the vote, and thousands were beaten and threatened, mainly by ruling party militants.

Leaders in Mugabe's party "seemed to sanction the use of violence and intimidation against political opponents and contributed significantly to the climate of fear so evident during the election campaign," the EU said. Meanwhile, police were being deployed throughout the country to prevent any possible outbreaks of trouble between the rival parties.

Riot police were sent to the southwestern Harare suburb of Budiriro, scene of repeated clashes in previous weeks between ruling party militants and opposition supporters. There were no reports of any clashes, and police appealed for calm.

"Those who win must be graceful and not target losers. Those who lose must accept losing with honor," Police Commissioner Augustine Chihuri said in a nationwide broadcast.

In the months leading up to the election, armed ruling party militants occupied hundreds of white-owned farms, demanding they be divided up and given to landless blacks.

The high turnout came despite what European observers said were intense levels of intimidation by ZANU-PF officials that made it virtually impossible for opposition candidates to campaign.

"The term 'free and fair elections' is not applicable in these elections," said Pierre Schori, head of the EU observers, the biggest group of foreign monitors.

"The level of violence and intimidation in the pre-election phase makes the term not applicable," the former Swedish government minister told a midnight news conference.

ZANU-PF secretary for administration, Didymus Mutasa, a close aide of Mugabe, told Reuters: "That is real garbage.

"They are biased and with this report they have confirmed that the EU's real mission is actually out to help those trying to overthrow President Mugabe and our party."

At least 30 people, mostly supporters of the MDC, have died in violence linked to the elections and invasions of hundreds of white-owned farms by pro-government militants since February.

Five MDC members were severely beaten by suspected ZANU-PF thugs on Saturday night in the Mataga area of central Zimbabwe.

"They were violently assaulted. People are really scared down there," human rights worker Val Ingham-Thorpe told Reuters after rushing three of the men to a Harare hospital on Monday.

Mudondo Timomenda was burned on the buttocks and beaten on his feet, while Simbai Murigwa had suffered a large, deep burn on his shoulder. Alphayo Shoko's face was badly swollen after he was battered on the head, she said.

The other two MDC members were still missing, Ingham-Thorpe said, adding that there had been 120 violent incidents in the Mataga area in the run-up to the elections.

Schori said that while weekend voting itself was "highly positive," the level of pre-poll violence and a "lack of transparency" by the government-appointed election body meant the process was seriously flawed.

"ZANU-PF leaders seemed to sanction the use of violence and intimidation against political opponents and contributed significantly to the climate of fear so evident during the election campaign," Schori said.

Observers from the Organization of African Unity (OAU) said they had noted scattered incidents of intimidation and problems with voters' lists, but the team judged the poll free and fair.

"In view of all that transpired during the campaign, including the violence and acrimonious debate, the major challenge now facing the Zimbabwean people has to do with creating a national strategy and forging forward with their development in an atmosphere of peace and harmony," the OAU monitoring team said in a statement.

Opposition Mounts Stunning Challenge in Zimbabwe

     HARARE (Reuters) - President Robert Mugabe's ZANU-PF party on Tuesday narrowly defeated a potent election challenge by a new opposition party but lost its power to alter the constitution despite a terror campaign before the poll.

     Although the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) failed to wrest control of parliament from ZANU-PF, it came within five seats of the government in contested constituencies.

     The stunning political success was all the more remarkable because it followed a four-month campaign of state-sponsored violence and intimidation that international monitors said prevented the election from being free and fair.

     Final official results showed ZANU-PF with 62 seats, the MDC with 57 and one for a small opposition party. ZANU-PF only retained a workable majority because of 30 members who are nominated personally by Mugabe.

     At least 30 people died in political violence and a campaign to occupy white-owned farms since last February.

     International monitors said this severely hindered the MDC's ability to campaign. MDC leader Morgan Tsvangirai said they would have won without the intimidation.

     MDC control of more than one third of parliamentary seats was highly significant, robbing Mugabe of the two thirds majority needed to make constitutional change.

     Mugabe has used his powers 16 times to amend the constitution and boost his powers, most recently to enable him to seize hundreds of white-owned farms.

     He also used this power to create the 30-seat personal voting block which is so crucial after this election.

     CHALLENGE TO RESULTS

     Tsvangirai told a news conference he would formally challenge 20 seats won by ZANU-PF.

     ``Without the subversion we would have easily won this election. There is no doubt in my mind,'' Tsvangirai said.

     The MDC was formed only nine-months ago but it far eclipsed any previous challenge to ZANU-PF, which had totally dominated power since independence 20 years ago.

     The combined opposition had never previously held more than three seats.

     The result was a huge slap in the face for Mugabe.

     The 76-year-old former guerrilla leader's power had never previously been challenged since he became prime minister at independence in 1980, following a bloody bush war against Rhodesia's white minority leaders.

     Fears of violence following the poll turned out to be unfounded and the streets of Harare remained quiet.

     Government officials, including police chief Augustine Chihuri, had repeatedly appealed for calm on Monday, warning against revenge attacks by one party against the other.

     Chihuri made the appeal again on Monday but the streets of Harare were unusually quiet, with the population apparently still absorbing the results.

     Tsvangirai ironically failed to win a tough contest for a seat in southern Zimbabwe. But no less than seven government ministers lost their seats, including Emmerson Munangagwa, considered one of two heirs apparent to Mugabe. The other, Sidney Sekeremayi, held his seat by just 63 votes.

     MDC officials said before the election that it would not overly concern them if Tsvangirai lost because this would free him to challenge Mugabe for the presidency in 2002.

     ``HITLER'' WINS

     Chenjerai Hunzvi, leader of self-styled liberation war veterans who conducted the farm invasions, won a seat for the first time in a constituency south of Harare.
Hunzvi, who revels in his guerrilla name of ``Hitler,'' won the seat in an area of central Zimbabwe heavily hit by the farm invasions.

     ZANU-PF had predicted the MDC could win no more than 10 seats nationwide and said they would bar the opposition from government whatever the election outcome.

     There was no immediate comment on the results from ZANU-PF but analysts said the government would find it difficult to ignore the MDC after its election performance.

     Mugabe based his campaign on race and land, saying the MDC was a front for former Rhodesians to try to overturn his plans to seize vast tracts from white farmers and redistribute them to black peasants.

     The MDC campaigned on a powerful campaign plank focused on the crisis in the economy, which has made Mugabe deeply unpopular in many areas.

     Zimbabwe is in its deepest economic crisis since independence, with record inflation and unemployment and an acute shortage of hard currency.