Fears and concerns are mounting in Africa after the Zimbabwe election last week:
EVEN if half the allegations made by the MDC of the 31 March elections not being free and fair are true, Zimbabweans must know they are entering a very dangerous period of political instability.
The MDC Opposition Party is claiming it won 91 seats instead of the announced 41:
The Movement for Democratic Change (MDC), Zimbabwe’s main opposition party, has demanded fresh elections under a new constitution saying voting can never be free and fair under the current legislative framework.
The MDC said on Sunday it had won 94 seats, rather than the 41 announced by the electoral commission.
“As long as we run elections under the same set of conditions, there is no way that elections will be free and fair,” MDC presidential spokesperson William Bango said.
“For a new constitutional dispensation to emerge, we require discussions that would get us to arrive at the type of laws that can govern a free and fair playing field. We have to press for this and if it is achieved then we can talk of the next step, which would be organizing an election.”
A youth demonstration was quickly dispersed:
Residents have reacted with anger and shock after the ruling Zanu PF garnered a two-thirds majority in the sixth parliament of Zimbabwe after Thursday’s legislative polls. Around lunch time today, hundreds of youths staged a peaceful demonstration along First Street but riot police reacted quickly and dispersed the demonstrators. Scores of people could be seen running through the streets of the capital.
As the situation remains tense, Mugabe warns the Opposition:
President Robert Mugabe has warned Zimbabwe’s main opposition against taking to the streets to protest its defeat in Thursday’s parliamentary poll. He has threatened that his government “can also raise mass action against mass action, and there would naturally be conflicts, serious conflicts,” as a result.