http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5i4kT7pJlnuzY_vpKdTACcQYIPcvQD90OLCLO0
Zimbabwe party: Military plotting to kill leader
By MICHELLE FAUL
5-19-8
NAIROBI, Kenya (AP) — Zimbabwe's opposition party accused the country's military Monday of plotting to assassinate the group's presidential candidate using snipers.
The Movement for Democratic Change said Morgan Tsvangirai planned to return to Zimbabwe to contest the June 27 runoff election once security measures are in place to protect him against the alleged assassination plot. The opposition says it received details of the alleged plot on Saturday as Tsvangirai was on his way to the airport in Johannesburg, South Africa, to return home.
"The assassination plot involves snipers," party Secretary-General Tendai Biti told The Associated Press after a news conference in the Kenyan capital of Nairobi. He said 18 snipers were involved in the alleged plot.
"It is the military (plotting), the JOC (Joint Operational Command) that has been running the country" since Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe, lost March 29 elections to Tsvangirai. "I cannot speak (more) of that because it would put a lot of lives at risk," Biti said.
Biti also condemned African leaders' failure to confront Mugabe, Zimbabwe's leader of 28 years, in the strongest terms yet used by his party.
He said the campaign of violence blamed on Mugabe's regime could backfire, saying that many of the millions of Zimbabweans who have fled the country planning to return to vote in the June runoff presidential election.
A third of the population has fled Zimbabwe in recent years as the country confronts chronic shortages of food, medicine, fuel and cash precipitated by the government's seizure of white-owned farms that once produced enough to feed the country and export to neighbors.
The government this month introduced a half-billion Zimbabwe dollar note in efforts to deal with runaway inflation that unofficial estimates put at 700,000 percent a year.
Tsvangirai says he won the elections outright. But official results and those compiled by independent monitors show he did not win the 50 percent plus one vote needed to avoid a runoff.
Biti said the runoff legitimizes Mugabe's "theft" and would not resolve Zimbabwe's crisis. He said it still was not too late to negotiate a "unity government of national healing." Not contesting was not an option as it would hand Mugabe victory, he said.
"The basic problem is that we have an old man, a geriatric, who is not prepared to give up power and that situation isn't going to change on June 27," Biti said.
A runoff was "merely extending and exacerbating the crisis" and legitimize "Mugabe's constitutional coup."
The answer, he said, is for African leaders to persuade Mugabe to negotiate a coalition government.
Biti railed against African leaders' failure to confront Mugabe: "What's concerning us is this lack of statesmanship, of leadership by African leaders," he said. "I think that the paralysis of leadership and perspective lies (with) certain officers indebted to Robert Mugabe. ..."
Mugabe's credentials as the leader of a liberation movement that fought a seven-year guerrilla war to force an end to white rule in 1980 still enhances his stature among many Africans.
But this year's crisis, and the violent government response, which human rights defenders say has killed dozens, injured hundreds and forced thousands from their homes, has divided leaders.
Biti's party has asked the Southern African Development Organization to replace South African President Thabo Mbeki as its chief negotiator in the Zimbabwe crisis.
Mbeki's insistence on "quiet diplomacy" to persuade Mugabe to change has largely failed, though his negotiations that led to election results being posted outside ballot stations did ensure a more open process that allowed the opposition to claim victory.
International efforts to intervene have been hampered by Mbeki and South Africa's current chairmanship of the U.N. Security Council.
"The Zimbabwe crisis is exposing every leader on the African continent, embarrassing us as Africans because we are not able to resolve our own problems," Biti said.
Showing posts with label Morgan Tsvangirai. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Morgan Tsvangirai. Show all posts
Thursday, May 22, 2008
Saturday, May 10, 2008
Zimbabwe Announces Election Runoff
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/05/03/world/africa/03zimbabwe.html
May 3, 2008
Zimbabwe Announces Election Runoff
By CELIA DUGGER and GRAHAM BOWLEY
JOHANNESBURG — After more than a month of delay, the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission Friday announced that opposition candidate Morgan Tsvangirai had beaten President Robert Mugabe, but not by an outright majority, forcing the two into a runoff.
A spokesman for the opposition immediately denounced the commission for short circuiting a vote verification process that was supposed to have allowed either side to challenge the official tallies. The opposition has long claimed that it won a clear — though bare — majority.
According to election officials, Mr. Tsvangirai won 47.9 percent of the vote to Mr. Mugabe’s 43.2 percent. The third major candidate, Simba Makoni, an independent who broke away from the president’s governing party, the ZANU-PF, took 8.3 percent of the vote.
Election officials did not announce a date for a runoff, but the law requires it be held within three weeks.
The long delay in announcing the results fanned the country’s deepening and increasingly violent political crisis, in which opposition supporters have been beaten, arrested and harassed. It also led to widespread accusations in Zimbabwe and abroad that Mr. Mugabe, who has led the nation with a firm grip for 28 years, was trying to manipulate the outcome and ward off a defeat for him and his ruling party.
The process of verifying the disputed presidential vote started only on Thursday afternoon, and opposition leaders were predicting it would take days, if not weeks, to complete. They said they were shocked Friday when election officials released the final tally before the opposition had a chance to challenge the count or reach a consensus with the ruling party about it.
During the Mar. 29 election, the results were publicly posted at each of more than 9,000 polling stations for the first time. An independent alliance of civic groups that monitored the election used a statistical sample from the polling stations to project that Mr. Tsvangirai led Mr. Mugabe, perhaps by enough to avoid a runoff.
The results released today and those claimed by the opposition both fall within the range of outcomes the election monitors said were plausible — 47 percent to 51.8 percent for Mr. Tsvangirai.
The opposition, which photographed thousands of the results at those stations, claimed it won 50.3 percent of the vote. By contrast, ministers in Mr. Mugabe’s government had maintained for weeks that neither had won a majority, so a runoff would be necessary against Mr. Tsvangirai.
Nelson Chamisa, spokesman for the Movement for Democratic Change, said Friday that the commission’s decision to release the result today was “scandalous,” ensuring that Zimbabwe’s political turmoil is far from at an end.
“They arrogantly announced the result,” he said. “We are really disturbed. They did not verify the results. They did not give us an opportunity to contest the results. They are waylaying the people’s will.”
But Mr. Chamisa was noncommittal on the crucial question of whether Mr. Tsvangirai would participate in a runoff. “That decision will come at the appropriate time by the leadership of the Movement for Democratic Change,” he said.
In recent weeks, the opposition, church leaders and human rights groups have reported increasing violence and intimidation against opposition supporters, often asserting that a slow-motion coup was underway in Zimbabwe, with the security forces exerting ever greater sway.
Human Rights Watch has accused the army of providing supporters of ZANU-PF with arms and trucks for a campaign of violence against the opposition. The Movement for Democratic Change has said that 20 of its members have been killed by pro-government militias since the election.
The state-run newspaper, The Herald, reported on Thursday that the police said the opposition p9 a gallon, and June heating oil futures rose 8.78 cents to settle at $3.3065 a gallon. June natural gas futures rose 40.1 cents to settle at $11.178 per 1,000 cubic feet.
In London, June Brent crude futures gained $3.43 to settle at $117.99 a barrel on the ICE Futures exchange.
Associated Press Writers Yahya Barzanji in Iraq, George Jahn in Vienna and Gillian Wong in Singapore contributed to this report.
May 3, 2008
Zimbabwe Announces Election Runoff
By CELIA DUGGER and GRAHAM BOWLEY
JOHANNESBURG — After more than a month of delay, the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission Friday announced that opposition candidate Morgan Tsvangirai had beaten President Robert Mugabe, but not by an outright majority, forcing the two into a runoff.
A spokesman for the opposition immediately denounced the commission for short circuiting a vote verification process that was supposed to have allowed either side to challenge the official tallies. The opposition has long claimed that it won a clear — though bare — majority.
According to election officials, Mr. Tsvangirai won 47.9 percent of the vote to Mr. Mugabe’s 43.2 percent. The third major candidate, Simba Makoni, an independent who broke away from the president’s governing party, the ZANU-PF, took 8.3 percent of the vote.
Election officials did not announce a date for a runoff, but the law requires it be held within three weeks.
The long delay in announcing the results fanned the country’s deepening and increasingly violent political crisis, in which opposition supporters have been beaten, arrested and harassed. It also led to widespread accusations in Zimbabwe and abroad that Mr. Mugabe, who has led the nation with a firm grip for 28 years, was trying to manipulate the outcome and ward off a defeat for him and his ruling party.
The process of verifying the disputed presidential vote started only on Thursday afternoon, and opposition leaders were predicting it would take days, if not weeks, to complete. They said they were shocked Friday when election officials released the final tally before the opposition had a chance to challenge the count or reach a consensus with the ruling party about it.
During the Mar. 29 election, the results were publicly posted at each of more than 9,000 polling stations for the first time. An independent alliance of civic groups that monitored the election used a statistical sample from the polling stations to project that Mr. Tsvangirai led Mr. Mugabe, perhaps by enough to avoid a runoff.
The results released today and those claimed by the opposition both fall within the range of outcomes the election monitors said were plausible — 47 percent to 51.8 percent for Mr. Tsvangirai.
The opposition, which photographed thousands of the results at those stations, claimed it won 50.3 percent of the vote. By contrast, ministers in Mr. Mugabe’s government had maintained for weeks that neither had won a majority, so a runoff would be necessary against Mr. Tsvangirai.
Nelson Chamisa, spokesman for the Movement for Democratic Change, said Friday that the commission’s decision to release the result today was “scandalous,” ensuring that Zimbabwe’s political turmoil is far from at an end.
“They arrogantly announced the result,” he said. “We are really disturbed. They did not verify the results. They did not give us an opportunity to contest the results. They are waylaying the people’s will.”
But Mr. Chamisa was noncommittal on the crucial question of whether Mr. Tsvangirai would participate in a runoff. “That decision will come at the appropriate time by the leadership of the Movement for Democratic Change,” he said.
In recent weeks, the opposition, church leaders and human rights groups have reported increasing violence and intimidation against opposition supporters, often asserting that a slow-motion coup was underway in Zimbabwe, with the security forces exerting ever greater sway.
Human Rights Watch has accused the army of providing supporters of ZANU-PF with arms and trucks for a campaign of violence against the opposition. The Movement for Democratic Change has said that 20 of its members have been killed by pro-government militias since the election.
The state-run newspaper, The Herald, reported on Thursday that the police said the opposition p9 a gallon, and June heating oil futures rose 8.78 cents to settle at $3.3065 a gallon. June natural gas futures rose 40.1 cents to settle at $11.178 per 1,000 cubic feet.
In London, June Brent crude futures gained $3.43 to settle at $117.99 a barrel on the ICE Futures exchange.
Associated Press Writers Yahya Barzanji in Iraq, George Jahn in Vienna and Gillian Wong in Singapore contributed to this report.
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