3 killed in Zimbabwe election violence
SOLDIERS FIRE ON OPPOSITION ACTIVISTS AS EUROPEAN UNION OBSERVERS QUESTION CONDUCT OF ELECTIONS
Zimbabwe police said that three people had been killed in violence in Harare yesterday, state broadcaster ZBC reported, after opposition supporters clashed with police over this week’s presidential election.
Police spokeswoman Charity Charamba said the three people killed were yet to be identified.
The killing of protests brings back to mind the dark days of former president Robert Mugabe’s era when elections and extreme regime violence went hand-in-hand.
Soldiers opened fire to disperse stone-throwing opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) supporters, with some beating fleeing protesters with their assault rifles while at least one whipped a passerby with a belt.
MDC supporters had taken to the streets to vent frustration over delays to announcing the results of the landmark presidential polls. The opposition accuse President Emmerson Mnangagwa and his ruling Zanu PF party of stalling so it can steal the election.
MDC leader Nelson Chamisa said on Twitter he had won the “popular vote” in Monday’s election, in which he challenged Mugabe’s successor, President Emmerson Mnangagwa from the ruling Zanu-PF party.
Chamisa accused the Zanu F of trying to steal the election. He accused the commission of releasing the parliamentary results first to prepare Zimbabweans for a Mnangagwa victory.
Official results show the ruling Zanu PF party won the most seats in the parliamentary ballot but the opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) rejected the outcome and charged that there had been fraud.
The results of the presidential vote have yet to be released.
President blames opposition
Mnangagwa said that violence was meant to disrupt this week’s presidential election, adding that he blamed the leadership of the MDC for those who were killed and injured.
“We hold the opposition MDC Alliance and its whole leadership responsible for this disturbance of national peace, which was meant to disrupt the electoral process,” Mnangagwa said, according to state broadcaster ZBC.
Mnangagwa said that MDC should remove its supporters from the streets, ZBC added.
However, Chamisa’s spokesman Nkululeko Sibanda said the army’s reaction in quelling disturbances in the capital was disproportionate and unjustified.
By nightfall, a stream of security forces had locked down the city centre and normally bustling areas like the bus station were deserted.
“Deploying soldiers means they are ruling with an iron fist. We are now a military state,” said vegetable seller Mazvinetsa Muradzikwa, 24. “We have the police, what’s the point of deploying soldiers?”
It had been hoped that the first elections following his removal — after a brief army takeover led by former army chief Constantino Chiwenga — would turn the page for the country.
“There’s no need for Chiwenga to control the elections,” said a protester, wearing a red sports jacket and holding a sign proclaiming “We don’t want fake elections.”
But moments after he spoke to AFP, a man wearing a black jumper and jeans was shot in the stomach and lay in a pool of his own blood that seeped onto the dusty tarmac.
European Union observers also questioned the conduct of the presidential and parliamentary poll. The observers expressed concern about delays in releasing the results of the presidential contest.
The EU’s chief observer, Elmar Brok, said he did not yet know if the shortcomings would have a material effect on its outcome, and he criticised the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission (ZEC) for being at times “one-sided”.
The EU’s assessment is critical in determining whether Zimbabwe can shed its pariah status as it could help attract investors and trigger an economic revival. The EU did not understand why the release of the presidential result was taking so long, he said.
“The longer it lasts that the results of the presidential election is not known, the more lack of credibility it provides,” Brok said.
Zimbabwe was once one of Africa’s most promising economies but under Mugabe’s rule became tainted by corruption, mismanagement and diplomatic isolation.