Zimbabwe opposition: Soldiers search for its supporters

HARARE, Zimbabwe — Zimbabwean soldiers were searching parts of the capital for opposition supporters to detain after the disputed election, the main opposition party said Saturday, as elsewhere mourners gathered for a victim of Wednesday’s military crackdown — a woman shot in the back.

Nkululeko Sibanda, a top official in the Movement for Democratic Change party, spoke at a courthouse in Harare where more than 20 supporters accused of inciting public violence were told their bail hearing was pushed to Monday. Sibanda said they included people arrested Thursday during a police raid on party headquarters.

“A lot of people are hiding,” Sibanda said. “It’s scarier than the Mugabe times.”

There was no independent confirmation of the allegation. President Emmerson Mnangagwa has said he wants to work with the opposition to rebuild the country after decades of repression under his former mentor, Robert Mugabe.

Sibanda said he was concerned that the government could try to implicate opposition supporters in the deaths of six people who were killed during the military crackdown in Harare. Soldiers opened fire on protesters, some of whom were rioting. One of those killed was Sylvia Maphosa, a vendor. Hundreds of mourners gathered at her home Saturday as relatives wept. The government paid for her funeral, according to her family and friends. Many mourners declined to talk to journalists.

As riot police circulated in the capital, supporters of opposition leader Nelson Chamisa urged him to keep fighting a day after he forcefully rejected Mnangagwa’s election victory and alleged manipulation. Zimbabwe’s electoral commission has said the president won with 50.8 percent of the vote while Chamisa received 44.3 percent.

Chamisa has said the opposition’s own count shows he won the vote and that they would challenge the election results in court. “We’re doing all to secure your vote & defend your WILL,” he said Saturday on Twitter.

“What we want Mr. Nelson Chamisa to do for us is to not give up on our vote,” said one supporter in the capital, Tisi Habis. “No matter what the [Zimbabwe Electoral Commission] says, Mr. Chamisa is our president.”