Zanu-PF, MDC share senate spoils
2008-04-05 17:30
London - British Prime Minister Gordon Brown and fellow centre-left world leaders called on Saturday for Zimbabwe's election results to be published and for international monitors to oversee any run-off.
Soon after, it was announced Zimbabwe's opposition and the ruling party each won 30 of the 60 seats in elections to the largely ceremonial senate upper house of parliament.
Speaking after a conference on political governance near London, Brown said: "In addition to us saying that the results should not be delayed, we are determined that of course there are international observers if there is a second round."
Brown said that a number of African leaders, including South African President Thabo Mbeki who stood alongside him at the news conference, backed the call for international observers if the contested elections in Zimbabwe go to a second round.
"I talked, in addition to President Mbeki, to President (Yoweri) Museveni in Uganda and to President (Jakaya) Kikwete, who is head of the African Union," Brown said.
"The determination of everybody is that not only are results not delayed where that is unnecessary but equally that the results are seen to be fair and that requires the observers we've just been talking about."
Zimbabwe opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai said on Saturday that he was the clear winner over President Robert Mugabe in the first round of the presidential election and there was no need for a run-off.
But Mbeki said in London he believed both Mugabe and the opposition were prepared to hold a second round of voting.
"Both Tsvangirai and Mugabe have said in the event that nobody has got this majority that's needed to be elected, they are quite ready for a second round," he said.
Bid to release lawyers
Meanwhile, lawyers for a British and an American journalist languishing in a Zimbabwean jail tried to lodge a legal bid for their release at the high court but were turned away.
New York Times correspondent Barry Bearak, 58, and a 45-year-old journalist from Britain were picked up at a Harare guest house on Thursday and later charged with illegally reporting Zimbabwe's general elections.
Their lawyers say the attorney general has decided there is no case against the journalists and went to the high court on Saturday to deliver an urgent application calling for police to release them immediately.
But they were cleared away from the high court building, which is opposite President Robert Mugabe's office, by someone wearing a ruling Zanu-PF t-shirt accompanied by two policemen.
"We were about to be let in when we were informed that we could not go in," lawyer Andrew Makoni told AFP. "We are now being barred from going to argue the matter."
"It's not a working day and we were told to go away," Makoni said. "We will try to find a way of getting in to the court but if we are barred there is nothing much we can do about it."
The New York Times reported on Saturday that their correspondent had been recharged with "falsely presenting himself as a journalist" after police realised that an earlier charge of working without accreditation was outdated.
Zimbabwean authorities barred most foreign media from covering last Saturday's general elections and had warned they would deal severely with journalists who sneaked into the country.
However a number of news organisations, including the BBC, have been filing reports from correspondents operating under cover.
- AFP