Chaos, fraud, mar Zim polls
2005-01-17 15:12
Harare - Voting for candidates to stand for President Robert Mugabe's ruling Zanu-PF party in parliamentary elections in March was continuing for a third day on Monday amid reports of rampant violence, fraud and confusion.
Thousands of Zanu-PF grassroots supporters began queuing early on Saturday in the party's primary elections for candidates to contest 120 seats in parliament, but in most places polls opened only in the afternoon, the state press reported.
Voting was still going on in several constituencies, state radio said at midday on Monday. The state-controlled Sunday Mail showed a picture on its front page of a long queue of people waiting to cast their ballot papers in an open cardboard box marked mixed fruit jam.
Serious controversy preceded the primary elections as party supporters held demonstrations against the exclusion of about a score of senior ruling party officials purged by Mugabe in a crackdown on unprecedented dissent within the ranks of the organization he has controlled for 30 years.
In one constituency, social welfare minister Cephas Mangawana burned a pile of ballot papers when he saw he was losing, the pro- government Daily Mirror said.
Mangawana is the architect of a law soon to be promulgated and meant to close down human rights organisations, including those devoted to transparent elections.
The state-run daily Herald, which usually censors reports embarrassing to the state, said on Monday that the results in two constituencies in eastern Zimbabwe had been suspended after massive rigging and vote buying.
Suspension of proceedings because of irregularities was reported in several other constituencies. Frequent violent clashes between supporters of opposing candidates were reported, and in one constituency in Harare, riot police had to be called twice to break up brawling.
Mugabe's victories in parliamentary elections in 2000 and presidential elections in 2002 have been widely dismissed as the result of fraud and violent intimidation. - Sapa-dpa
- SAPA