Zimbabwe Waits for Results Amid Fear Campaign
Tensions heightened in Zimbabwe Friday as citizens nervously awaited the final results of the presidential election amid a march by hundreds of pro-Mugabe veterans.
In what could be a harbinger of President Robert Mugabe's willingness to resort to intimidation and violence to hold onto power, some 400 veterans who fought with Mugabe to end white rule in Rhodesia marched in the streets of the capital Harare silently, although sending a clear message of warning to the opposition party, according to The Associated Press. The group of Mugabe loyalists has been employed in the past to strike fear into opposition supporters.
The march comes on the same day as the deadline for official results from last week's presidential election. The law requires the commission to release final results within six days of the vote. But the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission has still not released official election results as of Friday, despite increasing international pressure.
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Besides the marching veterans, Mugabe's party is also accused of being linked to Thursday's raid of offices used by the opposition party, the Movement for Democratic Change. The intruders are believed to be police or agents of the Central Intelligence Organization.
"Mugabe has started a crackdown," MDC secretary-general Tendai Biti told AP. "It is quite clear he has unleashed a war."
Also on Thursday, police arrested at least two foreign journalists, including Pulitzer Prize-winning correspondent Barry Bearak of The New York Times.
President Bush's national security spokesman, Gordon Johndroe, said Friday that White House officials were "troubled by reports we are hearing on the ground in Zimbabwe."
"Journalists and NGOs should be permitted to do their work," Johndroe said. "The people of Zimbabwe need a resolution soon to the electoral situation. The will of the people needs to be respected."
International development agencies have expressed increasing tension and concern over the election result delays. The agencies, which include Tearfund and Christian Aid, say their partners in Zimbabwe state that Zimbabweans feel betrayed by the failure of the electoral commission to declare the results of the presidential elections.
"After 5 days, there has still been no announcement of presidential poll results," wrote Tearfund on Thursday. "Results of parliamentary and senatorial polls were displayed at polling stations as early as 23h00 on Saturday 29th March and, since by law this constitutes the legal declaration, it is difficult to understand why ZEC insisted on the laborious process of broadcasting these results to the nation rather than moving on counting and tabulation of ballots pertaining to the presidential poll," it complained.
"This slow release of results continues to fuel well-founded fears that the official results have been tampered with," the U.K.-based Christian relief and development agency said.
The opposition party declared earlier this week that its leader Morgan Tsvangirai has won the election based on its calculation using results posted outside polling stations.
The MDC said if the results are not released by the end of Friday, it plans to file an application with the High Court to try to force the commission to do so, MDC spokesman Nelson Chamisa said, according to CNN.
"Right now we are using whatever tools we have to put pressure for the results to be released," Chamisa said.
Mugabe's ZANU-PF party, meanwhile, was to hold an important meeting Friday to discuss strategy as it deals with massive losses in elections and an expected presidential runoff.
Zimbabwe's society is grappling to deal with an economic meltdown with inflation over 100,000 percent and unemployment rate of over 80 percent. An estimated 3.5 million Zimbabweans have fled to neighboring South Africa and other countries to escape the hunger and to earn money to send back to family members still living in their homeland.
Zimbabwe, once admired for offering citizens some of the best education and health care in Africa, now considers schooling a luxury and has one of the lowest life expectancies in the world – 39.5 years old.
