Zimbabwe warns opposition over victory claims
Mugabe government warns opposition
Tendai Biti, secretary general of the main MDC opposition party, told diplomats and observers that early results showed it was victorious. %26quot;We have won this election,%26quot; he said.
Projections from 12 per cent of the vote showed MDC leader Morgan Tsvangirai winning 67 percent nationally, Biti said.
Voting ended at 7 p.m. local time on Saturday but almost 24 hours later only a trickle of results had emerged, leaving Zimbabweans on tenterhooks for the result. Many hope the election will reverse the country%26#39;s economic ruin.
Results usually begin emerging soon after polls close.
Officials said the delay was caused by the complexity of counting in three different polls but Biti expressed concern.
%26quot;We%26#39;re aware the results are final in most constituencies but they are deliberately taking their time to announce … The whole idea of having an election is so you can have a result,%26quot; he said.
George Chiweshe, chairman of the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission (ZEC), had to be rescued by security men in a Harare hotel when he was confronted by journalists and opposition supporters demanding results be published.
Mugabe, in power since independence from Britain in 1980, faced his most formidable challenge in the election against Tsvangirai and ruling ZANU-PF party defector Simba Makoni, who both campaigned on the collapse of Zimbabwe%26#39;s economy.
Although the odds seem stacked against Mugabe, 84, analysts believe he will be declared the winner and the opposition has accused him of widespread vote-rigging.
Zimbabwe%26#39;s security forces, which have thrown their backing firmly behind Mugabe, said before the election they would not allow a victory declaration before counting was complete.
Government spokesman George Charamba warned the opposition against such claims. %26quot;It is called a coup d%26#39;etat and we all know how coups are handled,%26quot; he told the state-owned Sunday Mail.
Residents in the eastern opposition stronghold of Manicaland said riot police stopped a victory demonstration by about 200 MDC supporters on Sunday. There was no violence, they said.
%26quot;DISGRACE%26quot;
Observers from the Pan-African parliament told the electoral commission they had found more than 8,000 non-existent voters registered on empty land in a Harare constituency.
The United States said it was worried by the conduct of the election and the absence of most international observers.
%26quot;The Mugabe regime is a disgrace to the people of Zimbabwe and a disgrace to southern Africa and to the continent of Africa as a whole,%26quot; Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice told reporters during a visit to Jerusalem.
Once-prosperous Zimbabwe is suffering from the world%26#39;s highest inflation rate of more than 100,000 per cent, chronic shortages of food and fuel, and an HIV/AIDS epidemic that has contributed to a steep decline in life expectancy.
Mugabe, who accuses the West of sabotaging Zimbabwe%26#39;s economy, expressed confidence on Saturday he would be returned to office. %26quot;We will succeed. We will conquer,%26quot; he said.
He rejected vote-rigging allegations.
Biti said Tsvangirai had made significant inroads in Mugabe%26#39;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.
If no candidate wins more than 51 per cent of the vote, the election will go into a second round.
