Related Articles Zvinavashe says Zanu PF must accept defeat Why Mugabe's recount ploy is a lie Rigging fears as Mugabe judge orders recount
|
29 April 2008
By Barry Bearak
JOHANNESBURG — With many of their activists under violent attack and hundreds of their supporters in jail, the leaders of Zimbabwe’s divided opposition formally announced Monday that the two groups had reunited, claiming control of Parliament for the first time in the nation’s history and demanding that President Robert Mugabe concede.
The leaders of the two factions, Morgan Tsvangirai and Arthur Mutambara, also called upon the United Nations to send a special envoy to Zimbabwe in an effort to stop what Mr. Tsvangirai called state-supported attacks that are “tantamount to crimes against humanity.”
The joint declaration ends two years of public bickering between competing factions of the Movement for Democratic Change, but it brings no further clarity to the political muddle in Zimbabwe, a nation that held elections on March 29 and still has no official presidential results.
“Mr. Robert Mugabe must accept that in a parliamentary democracy, the majority rules,” insisted Mr. Tsvangirai, appearing at a small commuter airport in Johannesburg at the side of his former rival, Mr. Mutambara.
As he has earlier, Mr. Tsvangirai claimed the presidency based on his party’s unofficial tabulations that give him 50.3 percent of all votes cast. “The majority of Zimbabweans have said Mugabe must find a way to retire and I hope those friendly to him will try to find a way to communicate this message: ‘Old Man, go and have an honorable exit,’” he said.
Mr. Tsvangirai brushed aside the notion that the official vote count might not show any single candidate winning a majority, and force him to face the 84-year-old Mr. Mugabe in a runoff. “The people have spoken, the people have triumphed,” he said dismissively, though independent projections indicate that Mr. Tsvangirai may have fallen short of an outright victory.
Zimbabwe’s election commission had promised to bring the contending parties together on Monday to review collated results in the presidential contest. But there were again unexplained delays.
The commission has completed recounts in 18 of 23 parliamentary races, however. So far, those results do not seem to change the earlier arithmetic, in which Mr. Tsvangirai’s larger faction of the Movement for Democratic Change won 99 seats and Mr. Mutambara’s smaller faction won 10.
That gave the combined opposition a clear majority in the 210-member assembly, but it wasn’t until Monday that the two factions formally stood should-to-shoulder. From its start in 1999, the Movement for Democratic Change has been an unlikely amalgam of trade unionists and intellectuals. Its common thread was antipathy for Mr. Mugabe, the increasingly-autocratic president who has led the nation since it won independence from white rule in 1980.
But by the end of 2006, continuing — and even violent — infighting caused the party to split. Though reconciliation seemed likely last year, the Mutambara faction ended up supporting an independent candidate, Simba Makoni, in last month’s presidential election.
Monday’s reconciliation comes as Mr. Tsvangirai continues to seek global intervention to find a way free of Zimbabwe’s impasse. Immediately after his appearance with Mr. Mutambara, he left for Tanzania to meet with Presdient Jakaya Kikwete, the chairman of the African Union.
Tendai Biti, the M.D.C.’s general secretary, is leading a delegation to the United Nations, where the Security Council may take up the deteriorating Zimbabwe situation on Tuesday. Louise Arbour, the United Nation’s top human rights official, has publicly expressed concerns that escalating violence could subvert any resolution to the stalled vote count.
In past weeks, a growing body of evidence — eyewitness accounts, photos and other documentation — shows that marauders aligned with Mr. Mugabe have carried out a series of attacks against people who supported the opposition in the election.
Mr. Tsvangirai calls these attacks the “rollout military plan,” and said he left Zimbabwe when the assaults began in order to pursue diplomatic pressure against the violence. Last Friday, heavily-armed police officers raided the M.D.C. headquarters in downtown Harare, jailing party workers as well as dozens of victims of rural violence who had sought shelter in the capital.
About 200 of those arrested were still locked up Monday night, even though a High Court judge had ordered their release, according to an opposition party lawyer, Alec Muchadehama. “The police have promised to comply but it still hasn’t happened,” he said.
Join the debate on this article in our forums today and share your views.
Nehanda Radio: Zimbabwe's first 24 hour internet radio news channel.