Botswana prepares to host Harare refugees

Mugabe’s ruling Zanu PF has sparked off a political storm by declaring that opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) leader, Morgan Tsvangirai, did not win the presidential election by the mandatory majority.

The Zimbabwe Electoral Commission (ZEC) on Friday met the contestants in the presidential election for the second time to verify the long awaited results before they are released.

A dispute over the official results of the March 29 poll forced the electoral body to adjourn the verification.

Election officials reportedly told the meeting on Thursday that opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai had won 47.8 per cent and Mugabe 43.2 per cent.

Second round

Zanu PF says Tsvangirai won 47 per cent of the vote against Mugabe’s 43 per cent, making a second round of voting necessary within 21 days.

Tsvangirai announced soon after the election that he had won outright and has stuck to his claims. The MDC accused Mugabe of delaying the results so that he could launch a violent fight- back.

Already, the opposition claims that 20 of its supporters have been killed by ruling party militia, led by veterans of the country’s liberation war and thousands displaced from their homes.

Botswana said it had set up a temporary camp inside a detention centre in the city of Francis town for illegal immigrants to accommodate Zimbabweans escaping the political violence.

The temporary centre will be used to screen new arrivals before they are sent to a permanent camp in the Dukwi refugee centre, near the border with Namibia.

Prime target

Tsvangirai was himself granted temporary refugee by Botswana soon after declaring himself the winner of the presidential election, saying he had become the prime target of the security forces.
 
Disagreements over the official results tally might delay the declaration of the final outcome even further, ZEC officials said, as the verification entered its second day on Friday.

“We adjourned to give them an opportunity to present their figures for comparison with our totals and if the figures do not tally, then they have to prove their source of results,” said ZEC deputy elections officer, Utoile Silaigwana. “We, as ZEC, are the authority with the results and if we do not reach an agreement, we have to go back to the primary source of results, which are the V11 forms from all polling stations. The V11 forms are the only source of results and they also have signatures of representatives from all parties.”

A first-round defeat would be a major blow to Mugabe, who has ruled the former British colony since 1980. Already reeling from his party losing parliament for the first time in 28 years, it would leave him at his weakest point.