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Mnangagwa accuses MDC of violence
 
By Our Correspondent
 
HARARE, May 7, 2008 (thezimbabwetimes.com) –The police arrested 59 opposition activists in Bulawayo Monday, minutes after Robert Mugabe’s chief election agent Emmerson Mnangagwa accused the MDC of arming gangs.
 
Mnangagwa issued a damning statement Monday as police violently broke up a Mothers Day procession demanding the correct election results, and dragged 11 into custody.
 
In Harare seven MDC activists, and independent journalists Frank Chikowore and Luke Tamborinyoka, appeared in court for routine remand hearing, where their case was postponed to May 8.
 
Mnangagwa, in his emotionally charged letter, accused the MDC of planning a campaign of violence to disturb the peace.
 
“Zanu-PF is alarmed at the establishment and proliferation of the so-called democratic resistance committees set up by MDC throughout the country,” Mnangagwa said. “It is becoming clear that these so called DRCs are being armed by the MDC and its sponsors. To ensure a peaceful campaign in the run-off period, Zanu-PF calls upon the MDC to dismantle these committees.”
 
The MDC promptly rubbished the allegations.
 
The senior MDC leadership met yesterday for six hours, but failed to reach any decision about contesting a runoff.
 
MDC spokesman Nelson Chamisa said the meeting had unanimously resolved to reject as bogus and scandalous the results released by ZEC.
 
“Apart from rejecting the results, we are calling for the verification of the actual results so that we will come up with the proper results,” Chamisa said. “Before
we talk about a run-off, we need to exhaust all the other processes and verification consistent with the SADC resolutions passed at a summit in Mulungushi, with Article Number 14, which said all parties should be able to verify the results,” he said.
 
Zimbabwe deputy chief elections officer, Utloile Silaigwana said yesterday that he doubted the runoff could be conducted in 21 days.
 
“The commission will meet this week to decide on the runoff date and it is not yet definite that the runoff will be held in 21 days because there is a provision that it might be held after 21 days,” Silaigwana said.
 
But a commentary by legal service Veritas says an election held after the 21-day deadline will be in breach of the Electoral Act, but lateness in such a context was a defect that could not practically be corrected. 
 
“A declaration that a late election is void or invalid would imply that the Presidential election can never be completed – an impossible conclusion,” said the constitutional law experts.
 
The MDC has insisted its leader Morgan Tsvangirai won the March 29 election outright. However, official figures, while putting Tsvangirai in the lead, did not give him an outright win, stating he had garnered 47 percent of the total votes cast against Mugabe’s 43 percent.

Senior MDC officials said privately, however, that Tsvangirai could take part in a second round if international observers were present.
 
While the police assaulted opposition activists in Bulawayo yesterday, they remained defiant and demanded the “correct results”.
 
“We are calling on the Chief Election Officer to declare Tsvangirai the winner,” said one of the protestors Jenni Williams. “We believe the results were rigged; we don’t believe them.”
 
But Zanu-PF insisted defeat was not an option.
 
“We are preparing for an absolute win in this runoff and there is no room for defeat,” said Zanu-PF administration secretary Didymus Mutasa.
 
The head of the SADC observer team, Jose Marcos Baricca issued a statement yesterday saying the election was conducted in accordance with electoral laws and said political parties should respect the will of the people.
 
“We appeal to the parties and contesting candidates to desist from being egocentrics and to work for the good of the people, respecting the will of the people (as) expressed in the ballot boxes,” Baricca said.
 
 
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