Catherine Philp in Harare
Fresh from his rigged election victory, Robert Mugabe and his military backers plan to assassinate or frame dozens of opposition MPs in an attempt to consolidate power and take back control of Parliament.
The Zanu (PF) party of Mr Mugabe lost its grip on the legislature for the first time since independence when the Movement for Democratic Change took control of the Lower House and drew level in the Senate after the March elections.
Having overturned Morgan Tsvangirai’s victory in the first round of the presidential vote with a brutal campaign of terror, President Mugabe’s henchmen believe that they can retake Parliament using violence or trumped-up criminal charges to drive out elected opposition MPs.
Leaked minutes from a meeting of the Joint Operation Command outline a strategy by which the MPs can be forced from office, sparking by-elections that Zanu (PF) planned to win by force. The original plan was to overturn the majority by challenging opposition wins through the courts, alleging that the results had been rigged. The refusal of judges to kowtow has led the regime to resort to tried and tested methods of violence.
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Naison Nemadizwa, the newly elected MDC MP for Buhera South, was abducted in daylight on Tuesday as he emerged from the High Court in Harare having seen off a legal challenge by the losing Zanu (PF) candidate. Onlookers saw him bundled into the back of a waiting car and driven away after he became involved in an argument with a group of six men. One of his abductors was identified as a colonel in the army.
We are starting to see a pattern emerge, Nelson Chamisa, the MDC spokesman, said. This is a consistent, co-ordinated strategy. Ten opposition MPs have been arrested in recent weeks and two remain in custody while others are out on bail charged with a range of offences alleging their involvement in election violence. Another, Thamsanqa Mahlangu, remains in a coma after he was attacked by the Zanu (PF) youth militia on his way to Mr Tsvangirai’s election rally in Harare a week before the election. Mr Tsvangirai pulled out of the election within hours of the attack, saying that he could no longer ask supporters to take such risks.
Sources say that the regime is setting its sights on the remaining opposition MPs, arresting those it can on trumped-up charges of assault, theft and rape. If convicted, the MPs would lose their seats, sparking by-elections that Zanu (PF) plans to win by employing the terror tactics that won Mr Mugabe his sixth presidential term.
Mr Mugabe’s inauguration on Sunday took place less than an hour after the announcement of official results handing him victory with ten times the number of votes as Mr Tsvangirai. In contrast, Parliament has yet to be convened since the March 29 elections gave the MDC 100 seats against 99 for Zanu (PF), with another ten seats for the breakaway MDC faction of Arthur Mutambara and one for an independent. The Mutambara faction, which broke off in 2005, has promised to back Mr Tsvangirai’s group in Parliament. The Senate is evenly split between the ruling party and the Opposition but the Constitution allows the President to appoint a further 33 senators.
An editorial in the state-run Herald yesterday noted that Mr Tsvangirai’s party could not claim a majority in its own right without the Mutambara faction, which can decide to side with any of the two big parties. Sources say that this reflects another part of the latest strategy  to buy off or coerce the Mutambara faction into backing Zanu (PF) and forming what the regime will claim is a government of national unity. Cracks have appeared within the faction, with its official spokesman dismissed for attending Mr Mugabe’s inauguration.
The witch-hunt has sent scores of MDC MPs into hiding, which could debar them from Parliament. Under Zimbabwean law, any parliamentarian can be dismissed for failing to attend for 21 consecutive days.
Post published in: News