:
Posted on 03/11/2002 1:37:22 AM PST by Cincinatus' Wife
HARARE, Zimbabwe -- Zimbabwe's chaotic presidential elections dissolved into confusion Monday morning as the government said voting would be extended an extra day but most polling officers refused to allow people to vote in this southern African nation.
The High Court ordered the government to extend voting countrywide for a third day after thousands of people remained on lines in Harare when the polls were supposed to close. Many voters returned to vote Monday after being chased away from polling stations by police Sunday night.
Justice Minister Patrick Chinamasa said on state television Monday morning that the government would comply with the court order under duress and would only extend voting around the capital of Harare because many polling stations in the rest of the country had already been dismantled.
However, by 8:30 a.m. Monday, 11/2 hours after polls were to reopen, polling observers in Harare said they remained closed.
"People have come as early as 4 a.m.. They wanted to vote, but nothing is happening in the ground," said Derek Madharani, an opposition poll observer. "I don't know what we can do now. We have exhausted all the channels to plea with this government to be fair to the people, to give them a chance to vote, but our pleas are falling on deaf ears."
Harare is a stronghold of the Movement for Democratic Change, led by Morgan Tsvangirai, who is challenging President Robert Mugabe's 22-year grip on power.
Mugabe and his Zimbabwean African National Union Patriotic Front ruled without significant dissent until recent years, when the economy entered its worst-ever crisis. Inflation is over 110 percent, unemployment is 60 percent and hundreds of thousands of people are going hungry.
Despite pre-election violence and intimidation that opposition officials blame on Mugabe loyalists, voters headed out in record numbers to cast their ballots during the weekend vote -- especially in urban areas like Harare.
The opposition and many observers have accused the government of trying to rig the elections by preventing urban residents -- who support the opposition -- from voting.
Alex Chinhanga, 25, a project coordinator for an educational institution who was chased away from a polling station in the poor Glen View suburb Sunday night said he was concerned about missing work to vote.
"We don't know what will happen when we go back to work with our bosses. Are they going to say, 'What happened?" or will they just keep quiet?" he asked.
The government announced turnout figures Monday that showed massive voting in Mugabe strongholds with far fewer voters casting ballots in opposition areas.
Mashonaland Central, which normally votes strongly for the ruling party, had a 68 percent turnout. The opposition stronghold of Harare had a 47 percent so far and the city of Bulawayo a 46 percent turnout, the government said.
Despite long lines in Harare, Information Minister Jonathan Moyo was quoted in the independent Daily News Monday as saying that reports of high turnout for Harare were "really pictures painted by people with creative imaginations."
Overall, 2.7 million of the nation's 5.6 million registered voters, or 48 percent, went to the polls, the government said.
The Zimbabwe Educational Trust, an independent research group, said last week that the voters' rolls were in such disarray that any turnout higher than 2.6 million could be rigged.
Also Monday, the state-run Herald newspaper said white people, opposition officials and an American were deployed to some polling stations in a suspicious manner that led authorities to believe there was a plot to disrupt the elections to give the international community a chance to declare them unfair.
The Herald also accused the American and British governments of "setting up the stage for a major military offensive" into the country.
Tsvangirai, Mugabe's most competitive challenger since independence in 1980, is promising to revive the economy and end corruption.
Mugabe has painted Tsvangirai as a servant to white interests and Western powers who want to see the country fail. Two weeks ago, Tsvangirai was charged with treason in connection with an alleged plot to assassinate Mugabe, an allegation he has denied.
Mugabe has promised public works initiatives if he is re-elected and has pledged to continue his controversial program of seizing white-owned farms and giving them to landless blacks. Whites make up less than 1 percent of the country's population but own about a third of the nation's commercial farmland.
In the weeks before the vote, pro-Mugabe militants attacked opposition supporters, while police broke up several opposition rallies and arrested dozens of Tsvangirai supporters.
Ruling party militants took over two polling stations, stole voting materials from a third, and at another station, ballots arrived already marked in favor of Mugabe, observers and opposition supporters said Saturday.
In a statement Sunday night, opposition officials said attacks on its polling monitors and supporters continued throughout the country.
...."At the time the high court was making the order, police were busy closing polling stations in Harare and Chitungwiza, beating up people queuing to vote and ordering them to go home because 'polling was over'," the MDC statement said.
Opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) leader Morgan Tsvangirai, seeking to end Mugabe's monopoly on power since independence in 1980, has accused Mugabe of wholesale cheating.
The government, citing high costs, logistical and administrative problems, defied a court order to keep all polling stations across the country open on Monday to ensure Zimbabwe's presidential election was fair.
With long queues of voters still lining up to cast their ballots on Sunday evening after two days and President Mugabe's challenger saying electoral officials were on a go-slow to thwart him, a High Court judge ordered a third day of voting. [End Excerpt]
Mugabe isn't going to let Jackson in on the action.
Florida voters need to look to Zimbabwe the next time they complain.
carter created this mess - where is he when he should be trying to clean it up?
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.