Post by Bozur on Mar 30, 2005 16:59:05 GMT -5
World - AP
Zimbabwe Opposition Leaders Get Out Vote
By RODRIQUE NGOWI, Associated Press Writer
HARARE, Zimbabwe - Opposition leaders urged supporters Wednesday to defy violence and intimidation and vote in parliamentary elections to help end President Robert Mugabe's increasingly isolated and repressive regime after 25 years in power.
AP Photo / Wed Mar 30, 9:46 AM ET / Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe greets supporters of his ZANU-PF party, Wednesday, March 30, 2005 during his last election rally in Harare before the start of parliamentary elections on Thursday. Mugabe's ruling ZANU-PF party will take on Morgan Tsvangirai's MDC party in parliamentary elections set for March 31. (AP Photo/Karel Prinsloo)
Zimbabwe's President Robert Mugabe praised former British prime minister Margaret Thatcher, seen here in January 2005, as a 'man-woman' who could resolve issues but said Tony Blair was a 'disaster' for his country(AFP/File/Odd Andersen)
A supporter of Robert Mugabe's ZANU PF ruling party carries the Zimbabwean flag during Mugabe's last electoral rally in Harare on the eve of parliamentary elections.(AFP/Alexander Joe)
Supporters of Robert Mugabe's ZANU PF ruling party dance during Mugabe's last electoral rally in Harare on the eve of parliamentary elections.(AFP/Alexander Joe)
Zimbabwe President Robert Mugabe (R) addresses supporters at an election rally in Glen Nora high density suburb in the capital Harare, March 30, 2005. Mugabe's said his ruling ZANU (PF) party will defeat the British sponsored opposition Movement for Democtratic Change (MDC) in parliamentary elections on March 31. REUTERS/str
Supporters of Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe's ruling ZANU (PF) party wave flags at an election rally in Glen Nora high density suburb in the capital Harare, March 30, 2005. Mugabe's said his ruling ZANU (PF) party will defeat the British sponsored opposition Movement for Democtratic Change (MDC) in parliamentary elections on March 31. REUTERS/str
Zimbabwean drivers push their cars as they line up for fuel in Bulawayo, Zimbabwe, March 30, 2005. President Robert Mugabe is widely expected to win Zimbabwe's parliamentary elections on Thursday but victory is unlikely to end his international isolation or the country's economic crisis. REUTERS/Juda Ngwenya
Zimbabwean Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) parliament member Trudy Stevenson campaign during an election rally in Hatcliffe some 20 kilometers north of Harare, Zimbabwe, Monday, March 28, 2005.Analysts say the ruling party has exaggerated the role of whites to discredit the opposition, whose most significant power base is among young, black, urban voters.(AP Photo/Karel Prinsloo)
Mugabe — widely accused of rigging previous elections — promised a huge win and said the election will prove once and for all that Zimbabweans reject interference from the rest of the world.
The ballot pits Mugabe's Zimbabwe African National Union-Patriotic Front party against the opposition Movement for Democratic Change, which won nearly half the seats in the legislature five years ago in a stinging rebuke to the 81-year-old leader.
At stake are 120 elected seats. Mugabe appoints another 30 seats, virtually guaranteeing his ZANU-PF party a majority.
"The end is near. Five years of your efforts in fighting against this illegitimate regime may be ending tomorrow," MDC leader Morgan Tsvangirai told some 4,500 supporters in the eastern Chimanimani region.
His candidate there is the wife of a white MDC lawmaker jailed for brawling with two government ministers.
Mugabe, pumping his arm while addressing more than 10,000 wildly cheering supporters at an opposition stronghold in the capital, promised a free vote and predicted a "huge, mountainous victory."
Mugabe accuses British Prime Minister Tony Blair and other Western leaders of backing the 6-year-old MDC, the first party to seriously challenge his rule. He dubbed Thursday's vote the "anti-Blair election."
Tsvangirai has said Mugabe, and not Blair, is to blame for Zimbabwe's condition.
Zimbabwe's economy has shrunk 50 percent during the past five years, and the unemployment rate is at least 70 percent. Agriculture, the economic base of Zimbabwe, has collapsed and at least 70 percent of the population live in poverty.
Opposition leaders blame the country's economic woes on the government's often-violent seizure of thousands of white-owned commercial farms for redistribution to black Zimbabweans.
Mugabe defends the program as a way of righting racial imbalances in land ownership inherited from British colonial rule and blames food shortages on years of crippling drought.
"The land is ours. It is not European," Mugabe told reporters after a rally Tuesday. "We have given it to the right people."
In Zimbabwe's second-largest city, Bulawayo, Roman Catholic Archbishop Pius Ncube accused the government Wednesday of refusing to sell food in parts of southern Zimbabwe to people believed to be opposition supporters.
Ncube, who was branded a half-wit by Mugabe on Tuesday after the cleric called for a nonviolent uprising against the ruling party, said villagers had been told they could not buy food if they were on a list of people considered opposition supporters.
Mugabe denied at a campaign rally in Harare that food was being used as a political weapon, saying: "Aid is given to all deserving cases without exception."
Ncube said that since the government asked the U.N. World Food Program to stop its food distributions, the government was the only source of corn meal, a staple food for Zimbabwe's poor.
Mugabe has been at pains to show he has genuine support, which analysts say would help pave the way for a handover to a successor of his choice when his term expires in 2008.
The opposition MDC was declared winner of 57 seats in the last parliamentary election in 2000, despite what Western observers called widespread violence, intimidation and vote rigging. But it has lost six seats in subsequent by-elections.
In 2002, Tsvangirai was declared the narrow loser of a flawed presidential poll.
While there has been much less violence during this campaign, a coalition of local aid and rights groups said Wednesday the poll would not be free, fair or legitimate.
"Covert intimidation is still rife, as is the culture of fear," said Brian Kogoro, chairman of Crisis in Zimbabwe.
A series of repressive laws introduced since 2000 has drastically curtailed the opposition's ability to meet, express its views and access the media, rights groups say.
Security forces and the ruling party's youth militia have maintained a menacing presence at opposition rallies. Mugabe's government has hand-picked election observers, barring groups that criticized previous polls.
Rights groups have also raised concerns about the voters' roll. Based on an audit of 10 percent of the list, the FreeZim rights group concluded it contains up to 1 million dead people, over 300,000 duplicate names and 1 million people who no longer reside at their registered address.
Some 5.8 million of Zimbabwe's nearly 12 million people are registered to vote Thursday. But up to 3.4 million Zimbabweans living overseas — many believed to be opposition supporters — have been barred from casting ballots.
___
Associated Press reporter Nicole Itano contributed to this report.
Zimbabwe Opposition Leaders Get Out Vote
By RODRIQUE NGOWI, Associated Press Writer
HARARE, Zimbabwe - Opposition leaders urged supporters Wednesday to defy violence and intimidation and vote in parliamentary elections to help end President Robert Mugabe's increasingly isolated and repressive regime after 25 years in power.
AP Photo / Wed Mar 30, 9:46 AM ET / Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe greets supporters of his ZANU-PF party, Wednesday, March 30, 2005 during his last election rally in Harare before the start of parliamentary elections on Thursday. Mugabe's ruling ZANU-PF party will take on Morgan Tsvangirai's MDC party in parliamentary elections set for March 31. (AP Photo/Karel Prinsloo)
Zimbabwe's President Robert Mugabe praised former British prime minister Margaret Thatcher, seen here in January 2005, as a 'man-woman' who could resolve issues but said Tony Blair was a 'disaster' for his country(AFP/File/Odd Andersen)
A supporter of Robert Mugabe's ZANU PF ruling party carries the Zimbabwean flag during Mugabe's last electoral rally in Harare on the eve of parliamentary elections.(AFP/Alexander Joe)
Supporters of Robert Mugabe's ZANU PF ruling party dance during Mugabe's last electoral rally in Harare on the eve of parliamentary elections.(AFP/Alexander Joe)
Zimbabwe President Robert Mugabe (R) addresses supporters at an election rally in Glen Nora high density suburb in the capital Harare, March 30, 2005. Mugabe's said his ruling ZANU (PF) party will defeat the British sponsored opposition Movement for Democtratic Change (MDC) in parliamentary elections on March 31. REUTERS/str
Supporters of Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe's ruling ZANU (PF) party wave flags at an election rally in Glen Nora high density suburb in the capital Harare, March 30, 2005. Mugabe's said his ruling ZANU (PF) party will defeat the British sponsored opposition Movement for Democtratic Change (MDC) in parliamentary elections on March 31. REUTERS/str
Zimbabwean drivers push their cars as they line up for fuel in Bulawayo, Zimbabwe, March 30, 2005. President Robert Mugabe is widely expected to win Zimbabwe's parliamentary elections on Thursday but victory is unlikely to end his international isolation or the country's economic crisis. REUTERS/Juda Ngwenya
Zimbabwean Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) parliament member Trudy Stevenson campaign during an election rally in Hatcliffe some 20 kilometers north of Harare, Zimbabwe, Monday, March 28, 2005.Analysts say the ruling party has exaggerated the role of whites to discredit the opposition, whose most significant power base is among young, black, urban voters.(AP Photo/Karel Prinsloo)
Mugabe — widely accused of rigging previous elections — promised a huge win and said the election will prove once and for all that Zimbabweans reject interference from the rest of the world.
The ballot pits Mugabe's Zimbabwe African National Union-Patriotic Front party against the opposition Movement for Democratic Change, which won nearly half the seats in the legislature five years ago in a stinging rebuke to the 81-year-old leader.
At stake are 120 elected seats. Mugabe appoints another 30 seats, virtually guaranteeing his ZANU-PF party a majority.
"The end is near. Five years of your efforts in fighting against this illegitimate regime may be ending tomorrow," MDC leader Morgan Tsvangirai told some 4,500 supporters in the eastern Chimanimani region.
His candidate there is the wife of a white MDC lawmaker jailed for brawling with two government ministers.
Mugabe, pumping his arm while addressing more than 10,000 wildly cheering supporters at an opposition stronghold in the capital, promised a free vote and predicted a "huge, mountainous victory."
Mugabe accuses British Prime Minister Tony Blair and other Western leaders of backing the 6-year-old MDC, the first party to seriously challenge his rule. He dubbed Thursday's vote the "anti-Blair election."
Tsvangirai has said Mugabe, and not Blair, is to blame for Zimbabwe's condition.
Zimbabwe's economy has shrunk 50 percent during the past five years, and the unemployment rate is at least 70 percent. Agriculture, the economic base of Zimbabwe, has collapsed and at least 70 percent of the population live in poverty.
Opposition leaders blame the country's economic woes on the government's often-violent seizure of thousands of white-owned commercial farms for redistribution to black Zimbabweans.
Mugabe defends the program as a way of righting racial imbalances in land ownership inherited from British colonial rule and blames food shortages on years of crippling drought.
"The land is ours. It is not European," Mugabe told reporters after a rally Tuesday. "We have given it to the right people."
In Zimbabwe's second-largest city, Bulawayo, Roman Catholic Archbishop Pius Ncube accused the government Wednesday of refusing to sell food in parts of southern Zimbabwe to people believed to be opposition supporters.
Ncube, who was branded a half-wit by Mugabe on Tuesday after the cleric called for a nonviolent uprising against the ruling party, said villagers had been told they could not buy food if they were on a list of people considered opposition supporters.
Mugabe denied at a campaign rally in Harare that food was being used as a political weapon, saying: "Aid is given to all deserving cases without exception."
Ncube said that since the government asked the U.N. World Food Program to stop its food distributions, the government was the only source of corn meal, a staple food for Zimbabwe's poor.
Mugabe has been at pains to show he has genuine support, which analysts say would help pave the way for a handover to a successor of his choice when his term expires in 2008.
The opposition MDC was declared winner of 57 seats in the last parliamentary election in 2000, despite what Western observers called widespread violence, intimidation and vote rigging. But it has lost six seats in subsequent by-elections.
In 2002, Tsvangirai was declared the narrow loser of a flawed presidential poll.
While there has been much less violence during this campaign, a coalition of local aid and rights groups said Wednesday the poll would not be free, fair or legitimate.
"Covert intimidation is still rife, as is the culture of fear," said Brian Kogoro, chairman of Crisis in Zimbabwe.
A series of repressive laws introduced since 2000 has drastically curtailed the opposition's ability to meet, express its views and access the media, rights groups say.
Security forces and the ruling party's youth militia have maintained a menacing presence at opposition rallies. Mugabe's government has hand-picked election observers, barring groups that criticized previous polls.
Rights groups have also raised concerns about the voters' roll. Based on an audit of 10 percent of the list, the FreeZim rights group concluded it contains up to 1 million dead people, over 300,000 duplicate names and 1 million people who no longer reside at their registered address.
Some 5.8 million of Zimbabwe's nearly 12 million people are registered to vote Thursday. But up to 3.4 million Zimbabweans living overseas — many believed to be opposition supporters — have been barred from casting ballots.
___
Associated Press reporter Nicole Itano contributed to this report.