HARARE, Aug 2 – Zimbabwe President Robert Mugabe’s party has won 26 out of the 28 parliamentary seats in the July 31 general elections announced by the country’s electoral commission on Thursday night.
The Zimbabwe Electoral Commission announced results of the elections of 28 parliamentary seats in three provinces in the first batch.
The Zimbabwe Africa National Union — Patriotic Front (Zanu-PF), led by Mugabe, won all the 11 seats in Mashonaland West province and all the 15 seats in Masvingo province but lost 2 seats to the Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai’s Movement for Democratic Change (MDC-T) party in Bulawayo city.
Even though the full official results of Zimbabwe’s watershed elections have not been announced, strong indications emerged a day after the voting that veteran president Robert Mugabe is leading.
News reports quoting different sources inside Mugabe’s Zimbabwe Africa National Union — Patriotic Front (Zanu-PF) have claimed landslide victory.
“We have crushed the MDC-T,” state news agency New Ziana reported late Thursday, citing an unnamed official, who claimed victory for both the party’s presidential and parliamentary candidates.
About 6.4 million Zimbabweans were registered to vote in Wednesday’s general elections. Movement for Democratic Change (MDC- T) leader Morgan Tsvangirai, a former trade union leader, is trying his third attempt over a decade to unseat Mugabe.
Regarded as Mugabe’s most serious challenger in politics since 1997, Tsvangirai on Thursday cried foul of the election, saying it is a huge “farce” and does not reflect the will of the people.
A visibly angry Tsvangirai refused to take questions at a press conference held in the party’s headquarters, but only issued a written statement.
“The election has been heavily manipulated.” Tsvangirai said. “The credibility has been marred by administrative and legal violations which affect the legitimacy of its outcome.”
“In our view, the outcome of this election is illegitimate,” he said, adding that the consequence of the illegitimacy of the results will plunge the country into a serious crisis.
A close confidante of Tsvangirai told Xinhua that things were not looking good for the party. The prime minister’s statement did not gain support from African observers who make up the bulk of estimated 1,500 foreign observers to the July 31 elections.
Former Nigerian President Olusegun Obasanjo, who led the African Union (AU) Election Observer mission, said Zimbabwe had held a successful election.
“Yes there were incidences, little incidences here and there, but they are not incidences that would flaw the election to the point of not reflecting the will of the people of this country,” reports quoted Obasanjo as saying after he bid farewell to Mugabe.
Earlier in the day, Namibian Electoral Commission Chair Notemba Tjipueja, who led a 25-man SADC Electoral Commission Forum observers’ team, also endorsed the election.
She outlined the various processes that the electoral body had gone through, including voter education, encouragement of former aliens to get new identification and the conduct of peaceful elections.
“As a result of these processes, the elections were credible,” she said.
Zimbabwe Electoral Commission (ZEC) called off a press conference Thursday as officials refused to respond to Tsvangirai’s allegations.
In a statement, ZEC chairperson Rita Makarau said the commission has received reports that the counting has been completed at polling station level and collation has commenced at ward and constituency level.
Results of the elections are being posted outside the polling stations. ZEC said poll results can be expected latest on Monday.
– BERNAMA
