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-----Original Message-----
From: Alex L. Redd [mailto:[log in to unmask]]
Sent: Thursday, March 14, 2002 8:21 AM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: MUGABE WINS ELECTION?
March 13, 2002
Ballot Skewed by Mugabe in
Zimbabwe, Observers Say
By RACHEL L. SWARNS
HARARE, Zimbabwe, Wednesday, March 13
- President Robert Mugabe held acommanding lead in the presidential
election early today and appeared headed to a victory certain tbe
contested after a campaign and balloting marredby political violence,
intimidation and other irregularities.
With about 70 percent of the country's districts reporting, Mr. Mugabe,
led his political rival,
Morgan Tsvangirai, by more than 240,000 votes, state television
reported. The election has been the most fiercely contested since
Zimbabwe's first fully democratic poll in 1980, which ended white rule
and brought Mr. Mugabe to power.
"Mugabe's won, convincingly," predicted Ibbo Mandaza, a political
analyst and the publisher of The Zimbabwe Mirror, a weekly newspaper
that often supports the government. He was providing analysis of the
election results on state television. "It's a very comfortable lead, a
very good lead."
Final results were not expected until later today. But if Mr. Mugabe
goes on to win the election, the legitimacy of his victory will
undoubtedly be questioned.
Mr. Tsvangirai has already vowed to contest any victory by Mr. Mugabe
and has suggested that his
supporters will take to the streets to protest. State television
reported this morning that the defense forces and police were on full
alert.
"We are very much prepared," Augustine Chihuri, the police commissioner,
warned earlier this week. "The losers must accept gratefully, and they
must
not attempt to interfere with law and order."
Mr. Mugabe, 78, nurtured and inspired a generation of African leaders
and
built schools and clinics for the neglected black population here in the
1980's.
But when economic hardships and simmering discontent fueled the rise of
a
formidable opposition party three years ago, Mr. Mugabe turned against
many of his own people.
In recent months, his government has jailed journalists and opposition
party
supporters, and condoned the waves of political violence that have left
more
than 30 people dead since January. He has also been accused of carrying
out
a number of administrative changes to disenfranchise opposition party
supporters.
On Tuesday, civic groups and a team of foreign observers condemned the
election as fundamentally flawed as officials began counting ballots
across the
country.
An observer team from Norway said that the poll did not meet
international
standards and that it was marred by violence, most of it from government
supporters, who often prevented the opposition party, the Movement from
Democratic Change, from campaigning.
The Zimbabwe Election Support Network, a coalition of local civic
groups,
criticized the government's decision to sharply reduce the number of
local
observers and the number of polling stations in opposition party
strongholds.
The decision left thousands of citizens unable to vote. Only about 41
percent
of voters here managed to vote.
"Tens of thousands of Zimbabweans were deliberately and systematically
disenfranchised of their fundamental right to participate in the
governance of their country," said Reginald Matchaba-Hove, the chairman
of the Zimbabwe Election Support Network, who sent about 400 observers
to polling stations across the country.
"There is no way these elections could be described a substantially free
and fair," Mr. Matchaba-Hove said.
The early election results indicated that Mr. Mugabe had swept rural
communities, where impoverished voters apparently rallied behind his
plan to redistribute land from the white minority to the black majority.
Mr. Tsvangirai, a former union leader, dominated the cities of Harare
and Bulawayo, where discontent over soaring prices, unemployment and
food shortages simmers.
An election victory for Mr. Mugabe seemed likely to set the stage for a
confrontation with Mr. Tsvangirai, who had described an opposition
victory as a certainty. Last week, he said that Mr. Mugabe could only
with through "massive fraud" and suggested that his supporters would
accept no other outcome.
Mr. Mugabe's government has also made it clear that the generals and
senior officials would not hesitate to topple Mr. Tsvangirai in a coup,
if he were to win.
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