BBC
Sunday, 30 March 2008, 00:16 GMT
Vote counting has started in Zimbabwe after
an election that will
decide whether President Robert Mugabe wins a sixth
term in office.
His rivals are Morgan Tsvangirai of the opposition
MDC party and
former finance minister and independent Simba
Makoni.
Many voters have complained of not being allowed to cast
their
ballots.
The MDC fears the poll will be rigged but Mr
Mugabe dismissed such
concerns as he cast his vote in Harare, saying "We
don't rig elections".
On Saturday, Zimbabweans voted in local,
senate, assembly and
presidential polls.
The process was
unusually complicated, and it is likely to be a day or
two at least before
all the results are declared, says the BBC's Southern
Africa correspondent
Peter Biles.
He says Mr Mugabe and his ruling Zanu-PF party will be
relying on
support from voters in the countryside, while the MDC (Movement
for
Democratic Change) is strongest in the cities.
But in
recent days it has become increasingly difficult to predict the
outcome of
the poll, our correspondent adds.
'Ghost voters'
Polling stations in Zimbabwe opened at 0500 GMT and were scheduled to
close
at 1700 GMT, but people still queuing were allowed to vote later than
that.
Across the country, there were reports of voters not
being allowed to
cast ballots - either because their names were not on the
voters' roll or
because they were trying to vote in the wrong
ward.
One UK resident said his sister was "disappointed and
distressed" to
be turned away "even though when she checked a couple of
weeks ago she was
on the [register]".
Others found the system
fair and efficient. Sandra, 23, told the BBC
by phone from Bulawayo: "There
is a long queue behind me but it is moving.
People around me are quiet and
are waiting patiently to cast their vote."
Correspondents say
opposition members are concerned that many voters
feared intimidation and
stayed at home.
A presidential decree ahead of the elections had
permitted police to
go into polling stations, ostensibly to help illiterate
voters.
The MDC said some of its party agents were prevented from
entering
polling stations.
Pan-African Parliament observers
have now reportedly written to the
electoral commission, saying that more
than 8,450 voters had been registered
on a patch of deserted land in
Harare.
But an African Union observer, Yvonne Khamati, told Kenyan
TV:
"Everything seems regular and people are coming out to vote. There is no
sign of the military or police."
Voting passed off largely
peacefully although a petrol bomb injured a
Zanu-PF party's councillor in
the city of Bulawayo.
'We will succeed'
Voting in
Harare, Mr Makoni said he was confident of victory: "I feel
good, I voted
for the best candidate, I voted for Simba Makoni."
President
Mugabe, in power since 1980, also predicted that he would
win: "This time
around, like the last time, very good... we will succeed and
we will
conquer."
He added: "I cannot sleep with my conscience if I have
rigged."
Mr Tsvangirai also said he expected to win.
"Victory is assured in spite of the regime's attempt to subvert the
will of
the people," he said.
Police warning
On the eve of the
polls, President Mugabe accused the MDC of being "a
puppet" of the former
colonial power Britain.
The MDC says it is fighting to save
Zimbabwe's economy.
The country has the world's highest inflation
rate, at more than
100,000%, and just one adult in five is believed to have
a regular job.
The chiefs of Zimbabwe's police, army prison service
and intelligence
services warned on Friday that violence after the polls
would not be
tolerated.
Reuters
Sun 30 Mar
2008, 3:26 GMT
(Recasts with opposition victory claim based on early
results)
By MacDonald Dzirutwe
HARARE, March 30 (Reuters) -
Zimbabwe's opposition claimed victory on Sunday
based on early results from
an election in which it is trying to unseat
President Robert Mugabe after 28
years of power and end an economic
collapse.
"It's a historic moment
for all of us. We have won this election, we have
won this election," Tendai
Biti, secretary general of the main opposition
Movemement for Democratic
Change (MDC), told reporters, diplomats and
observers at a
briefing.
The opposition, headed by former trade unionist Morgan
Tsvangirai, has
accused 84-year-old Mugabe of employing election-rigging
tactics in an
attempt to stay in power and African observers say they
detected fraud in
Saturday's ballot.
Once-prosperous Zimbabwe is
suffering from the world's highest inflation
rate of more than 100,000
percent, chronic shortages of food and fuel and a
rampant HIV/AIDS epidemic
that has contributed to a steep decline in life
expectancy.
"People
are dying in hospitals and funeral expenses are very high. How do
you expect
us to survive? Shop shelves are empty," said mother-of-three
Gertrude
Muzanenhamo, 36, echoing the views of many voters interviewed by
reporters.
Mugabe, who accuses the West of sabotaging Zimbabwe's
economy, expressed
confidence on Saturday he would be returned to office.
"We will succeed. We
will conquer," he said.
The former guerrilla
leader, in power since independence from Britain in
1980, rejected the
vote-rigging allegations.
Biti said the MDC's election agents had
reported that early results posted
at polling stations showed Tsvangirai was
projected to win 66 percent of the
vote in the capital Harare, an opposition
stronghold.
SIGNIFICANT INROADS
He said Tsvangirai had made
significant inroads in Mugabe's rural
strongholds by leading in the southern
province of Masvingo and Mashonaland
Central Province, north of Harare,
where the MDC has not won a parliamentary
seat since
2000.
Tsvangirai's winning trend had also extended to Mugabe's home
province of
Mashonaland West, where the MDC had taken a rural parliamentary
seat, said
Biti.
He said that in Zimbabwe's second city of Bulawayo,
another opposition power
base, Tsvangirai had a slight edge over former
Finance Minister and ruling
ZANU-PF official Simba Makoni -- also standing
against Mugabe.
But Makoni, whose decision to run was seen by many
analysts as a sign of
increasing unease in ZANU-PF ranks, was leading in
Zimbabwe's southwestern
Matabeleland South Province.
The Zimbabwe
Electoral Commission said it would start to announce official
results later
on Sunday. Final results are not expected for several days
from the
presidential, parliamentary and local polls.
Observers from the
Pan-African parliament said in a letter to the commission
they had found
more than 8,000 non-existent voters registered on empty land
in a Harare
constituency.
Most international observers were banned and a team from
the regional
grouping, the Southern African Development Community (SADC),
did not comment
on Saturday. Critics say the SADC, which has tried to
mediate over Zimbabwe,
is too soft on Mugabe.
The powerful heads of
the security forces have backed Mugabe, and voters
said they had seen
patrolling police and army units with armoured vehicles
and water
cannon.
Some security chiefs say they will not accept a Tsvangirai
victory but the
opposition leader told reporters: "I am not seeking the
security chiefs
mandate but the people's mandate."
If no candidate
wins more than 51 percent of the vote, the election will go
into a second
round.
(Additional reporting by Cris Chinaka, Stella Mapenzauswa, Nelson
Banya and
Muchena Zigomo) (Editing by Ralph Gowling)
New Zimbabwe
By
Lindie Whiz
Last updated: 03/30/2008 13:05:37
A FACTION of Zimbabwe’s
opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) led
by Arthur Mutambara
appeared on the verge of ceding control of the second
largest city of
Bulawayo to a rival faction led by Morgan Tsvangirai,
according to a New
Zimbabwe.com projection from early election returns
Sunday.
Only
David Coltart (former Bulawayo South MP) appeared set to be returned to
parliament as a senator for Khumalo, with most heavyweights such as
Professor Welshman Ncube and Gibson Sibanda down. Counting in the 12
Bulawayo parliamentary constituencies and six senate seats was expected to
be concluded by breakfast Sunday.
The MDC-Mutambara’s losses,
however, appeared to be mitigated by projected
wins in rural Matabeleland
North and Matabeleland South – notably Tsholotsho
North, Bulima, Gwanda
North, Gwanda Central and Binga.
But Ncube and Sibanda’s loss will
devastate the camp in a shock turn-around
from what was generally predicted
before voting began Saturday.
Tendai Biti, secretary general of the
Tsvangirai faction of the MDC declared
victory in the early hours of Sunday
in a national ballot which saw
Zimbabweans queue to cast their ballots in
local government, senatorial,
parliamentary and presidential
elections.
Officials results are expected through-out the day
Sunday.
A senior official in the Mutambara faction, conceding defeat,
said: “We have
been wiped out. We are all speechless, stunned.”
The
MDC split into two factions in October 2005, with Ncube and Sibanda
leading
a break-away which took half the MDC’s parliamentary party. Efforts
to unite
the two factions have failed.
Ncube, in particular, staked his political
career on this election by moving
from his previous constituency, Bulawayo
North, to challenge Khupe in
Makokoba. Khupe is Tsvangirai's deputy.
Zimbabwe Today
Zanu-PF
were widely expected to rig this election - and my sources tell me
they are
performing well up to expectations
From across the country this
afternoon, Saturday, came reports indicating
that the intimidation, the
cheating, and the blatant chicanery which our
people have come to expect
from Mugabe's regime is in full swing.
To observers there seem to be
three or four different ways that Zanu-PF and
its paramilitary police and
agents are operating (not including ballot box
stuffing and other illegal
moves that will undoubtedly come later.)
In rural areas they are
"assisting" voters to vote - that is, they are
guiding the hands of confused
and frightened voters, making sure they vote
the Zanu-PF/Mugabe
ticket.
In town, where the strong points of the opposition can be found,
the police
are in the voting stations, slowing the flow of voters and
turning away
genuine registered voters, by claiming they are either 'aliens'
or have
names that do not appear on our notorious electoral roll.
In
various areas buses have been laid on to take willing Zanu-PF volunteers
from one polling station to another to take part in multiple voting - an
operation known in the Central Intelligence Organisation as "Boys On
Leave".
And then of course there is the normal intimidation, with many
examples of
opposition officials being frightened away from polling stations
by CIO
bullyboys. Here are some of the detailed reports.
The MDC's
secretary general, Tendai Biti, is leading protests about the
practice of
"assisting" voters in rural areas. He gave the example of
Cheunye Primary
School in Mt. Darwin, where police "assisted" more than 200
people during
the morning
The practice is intended, of course, to help illiterate
voters. But Biti
pointed out that according to UNESCO Zimbabwe has the
highest overall
literacy rate in Southern Africa - 90 per cent, as compared
to South Africa
at 86 per cent. It's clear, he believes, that these assisted
voters don't
need assistance.
Some would-be voters thoughtfully took
their voting registration
certificates with them when they went to vote, but
were nonetheless turned
away at dozens of polling stations by Mugabe's men.
The most affected
suburbs in Harare, said Biti, included Kuwadzana,
Kambuzuma, Mufakose,
Mabvuku and Budiriro - areas where opposition support
is of the strongest.
Examples of intimidation of both voters and
opposition officials came in
from Runyararo polling station in Masvingo
urban, and from several polling
stations in the Gutu rural
district.
As for the Boys On Leave, three buses were spotted in
Nyamapanda by the
eastern border between Zimbabwe and Mozambique. They were
dutifully ferrying
voter from one polling station to another.
One
final report - at Munyaradzi polling station in Gutu Central, the
Zanu-PF
candidate Lovemore Matuke tried to buy votes at the station door by
offering
free maize meal to voters.
Even on a probably grim day for Zimbabwe let
me bring a smile to some of
you, with the following:
Robert Mugabe
cast his vote in Highfield this morning. He was asked by
reporters about
allegations of election rigging. He said: "We don't rig
elections. I could
not sleep with my conscience if I have rigged."
Sleep well,
Robert.
Posted on Saturday, 29 March 2008 at 16:36 | Permalin
Business Report
March
30, 2008
By Wiseman Khuzwayo
Johannesburg - Zimbabwe is
experiencing an unprecedented flight of skills
from both the private and
public sectors to countries such as South Africa,
Botswana, the UK,
Australia and the US.
The intensifying brain drain is fuelled by a
crumbling economy and
increasing demand for skilled labour in South
Africa.
This is according to a report by the Johannesburg-based Centre
for
Development and Enterprise, which was released this week following a
workshop held at the end of last year.
Zimbabwe is in the grips of
debilitating hyperinflation, with consumer
prices rocketing at an absurd
pace of more than 100 000 percent a year, the
report notes.
The
crisis in South Africa's neighbour is characterised by an economy that
has
been shrinking by 4 percent a year during the past four years, 80
percent of
the population living below the poverty datum line, and a 70
percent
unemployment rate in the formal sector.
After independence, the country's
first wave of skills migration during the
early 1980s overwhelmingly
comprised white Zimbabweans.
"For example, between 1980 and 1983 the
country lost 19 300 skilled and
professional workers, mostly to South
Africa, Australia and Britain. Most of
the vacancies were filled by
returning black Zimbabweans with good
qualifications and experience," says
the report.
"The second wave, during the 1990s, consisted of the
departure of skilled
blacks and whites, triggered by the adverse effects of
the economic
structural adjustment programme introduced by the
government.
"The third wave began soon after the constitutional
referendum and general
election of 2000."
According to the report,
the Scientific and Industrial Research and
Development Centre, a
Harare-based parastatal, concluded in 2003 that about
490 000 skilled
Zimbabweans of all colours had left because the weakening
economy limited
their employment prospects.
This figure has since increased to more
than 800 000, although a significant
proportion of these skilled migrants
are not employed as professionals in
their destination countries.
The
report cites studies that reveal that many qualified Zimbabweans are
doing
jobs which do not use their skills, such as waiting on tables, or for
which
they are vastly overqualified.
The increasing loss of trained workers to
the diaspora has eroded the
skilled human resource base the country needs
for economic and social
development.
For instance, the health care
system in Zimbabwe is experiencing a human and
financial resources
crisis.
"A 2003 study estimated that more than 80 percent of doctors,
nurses,
pharmacists, radiologists and therapists trained since 1980 had left
the
country, and that by 2003 Zimbabwe had lost more than 2 100 medical
doctors
and 1 950 certified nurses, mostly to South Africa, Botswana,
Namibia,
Britain and Australia.
"The problem has been compounded by
the fact that, due to staff shortages,
the University of Zimbabwe medical
training hospital in Harare has been
forced to reduce its annual intake of
medical students from 120 to 70."
While South Africa is the main
receiving country in the region, the report
says that current policies still
make it difficult for skilled people to
enter the country legally, as
procedures are marked by complicated and
demanding permits and quota
systems.
Simultaneously, it says that migration from Zimbabwe holds
potential
benefits for South Africa in the form of an additional pool of
skilled
labour who can alleviate the significant skills shortages hampering
its
economy.