Zimbabwean authorities say the military will remain in the capital until “this situation is over,” a reference to opposition protests over alleged manipulation of Monday’s election results.
Home Affairs Minister Obert Mpofu accuses the opposition of using the presence of international election observers to “grandstand” and cause “anarchy.”
The officials offered no new information on the three people killed after the military swept into Harare earlier Wednesday and started shooting to disperse opposition protesters.
Police have said they requested the military’s help because they were “unable to cope.”
Both the opposition and Western election observers have urged that results of the presidential election be released as soon as possible. Zimbabwe’s electoral commission says “sometime tomorrow” it will say when those will be announced.
Stephen Chan, a professor at the University of London’s SOAS tweeted:
“Not sure how they can be so completely over-the-top clumsy and BAD. ZANU-PF must have been smugly congratulating themselves for ‘managing’ the election and projecting a new image – and then, in one fell swoop, killing protesters in front of world observers. Same old ZANU-PF.”
