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Written by James
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Monday, 31 March 2008 11:15 |
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MDC Claims
HARARE - Zimbabwe's opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) party claimed a commanding lead in a presidential election, quoting unofficial results showing party leader Morgan Tsvangirai with 60 percent against 30 percent garnered by President Robert Mugabe.
MDC secretary general Tendai Biti told journalists in Harare: From the 128 constituencies whose results we have calculated so far, we have 96 out of the 128 (parliamentary) seats and Morgan Tsvangirai is at 60 percent, Robert Mugabe is at 30 percent. The party has been releasing unofficial results, which it says are collated from figures supplied by its officials on the ground in constituencies across the country. The MDC figures have shown the opposition party leading both in the presidential and parliamentary polls. The Zimbabwe Electoral Commission, which has dismissed the MDC figures as baseless speculation, only began releasing official results about five hours ago showing the opposition running neck-and-neck with Mugabe's ruling ZANU PF party, with 12 seats apiece in the House of Assembly election. Close Mugabe aide and Justice Minister Patrick Chinamasa is the first high profile government official to lose his seat to the opposition, according to official results released by ZEC. There have been no official presidential results issued so far but the commission - which blamed delays in announcing results on the complexities of running the presidential, parliamentary and local government elections simultaneously - has promised to release all results within two days. The MDC has accused the commission of deliberately withholding results in order to fix the vote in favour of Mugabe. The elections, billed Zimbabwe's most important since independence from Britain 28 years ago, have been held amid an acute recession blamed on state mismanagement and seen in the world's highest inflation of more than 100 000 percent, spiraling poverty, shortages of food and every basic commodity. Political analysts say support from the military and a skewed political playing field that disadvantages the opposition are enough to ensure victory for Mugabe's government despite an economic crisis that the World Bank has described as the worst in the world outside a war zone.
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