Zimbabwe uprising in face of 'sham' election fails to materialise

DESPAIRING Zimbabweans yesterday resigned themselves to the continuing rule of president Robert Mugabe.

While opposition leaders had called for a Ukraine-style popular uprising in the face of elections which have been condemned as unfair, street protests failed to materialise yesterday.

On the busy streets of the capital, Harare, there was little sign that Mugabe’s ruling Zanu-PF party had maintained its 25-year grip on power in parliamentary elections condemned worldwide as a sham.

In a country whose economy is in tatters with more than 80% unemployed, and where the 30,000 police and army officers drafted in for election day maintain a threatening presence on every street corner, there is little visible protest.

From the businessmen to the banana sellers to the beggars, the people of Zimbabwe have had little choice but return to work.

Wellington Gasela, 24, a bus conductor in Harare, said: "I had hoped that this time there might have been change, and Mugabe might have listened to the message to leave.

"But now I realise that was just a dream. I may as well wait for a horse to grow horns as to hope that Zanu-PF would go."

Although a few rural constituencies had still yesterday to return their results from the voting on Thursday, Mugabe's Zimbabwe African National Union - Patriotic Front party had secured 71 of the contested 120 seats.

The 81-year-old president also automatically appoints a further 30 posts of his own choosing, meaning Zanu-PF has secured the two-thirds majority needed to push through constitutional reform.

With counting in progress, the opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) party had only won 39 seats.

Morgan Tsvangirai, the MDC leader, has accused the ruling party of stealing the election, saying he was "deeply disturbed" at fraudulent activities his party has discovered. The UK, Germany and the USA have also called the election "flawed".

Supporters of Zanu-PF are accused of using violence and intimidation to secure votes, in addition to denying food aid in drought-hit areas.

Complaints also focus on the electoral register. While thousands were turned away as their names were not listed, others claim that the names of their dead relatives had not been removed - "ghost voters" used fraudulently to boost numbers.

Mugabe has dismissed the claims as "nonsense", while his supporters point to the surprise defeat of Emmerson Mnangagwa, the Zanu-PF parliament speaker, or to the victory of the recently sacked information minister Jonathan Moyo, now an independent MP, as a sign that the polls were not rigged.

Criticism of the election comes as two British journalists working for the Sunday Telegraph remain under arrest after they were caught reporting without permission, since Mugabe’s draconian media restrictions denied them access. The pair face a possible two-year prison sentence.

Mugabe had banned more than three million exiled Zimbabweans from the poll. Exiled leaders said yesterday that most of the 400,000 Zimbabweans who live in the UK would stay put for the next few years.

"If Zimbabweans in the diaspora had the vote, the results of the farcical election might have been different," veteran nationalist Arthur Molife told Scotland on Sunday. "Most of us are here for the foreseeable future, maybe for ever."

He added: "I think the days of the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) being led by Morgan Tsvangirai are over. The MDC should never have contested this election and now they are talking about a peaceful uprising. Fat chance that has of succeeding.

"Mugabe would put thousands of soldiers, police and riot squads on to the streets and order them to kill ringleaders.

"The real result of this election is that Zimbabweans who care about their country will be forced to leave and help form a government in waiting.

"We will restructure the old Zimbabwe African People's Union (ZAPU), which was the original freedom movement in Zimbabwe. My bet is that the new party’s first congress will be held in Britain."

Dr Brighton Chireka, leader of the MDC in Britain, added: "I hope to God that we do not take up our seats in parliament. That would give Mugabe credibility. We must stick together. Division is what Mugabe wants."