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Zim by-elections begin
29/03/2003 20:28 - (SA)
Harare - Voting started on Saturday in by-elections in two key suburbs of the Zimbabwe capital, as political tensions ran high between the main opposition and President Robert Mugabe's ruling party.
Mugabe's Zimbabwe African National Union - Patriotic Front (ZANU-PF) has vowed to win back the two seats in suburbs of Highfield and Kuwadzana from the opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC).
The opposition has already accused the government of irregularly registering thousands of non-resident voters in the two consitituencies in order to rig the polls.
It says there are also plans by the ruling party to hand out scarce food supplies to voters in the suburb smeared with indelible ink, thus disqualifying potential voters.
People with ink on their hands are deemed to have already voted.
But an AFP photographer in Kuwadzana said he witnessed voters queuing peacefully outside polling stations in the impoverished suburb. There were no signs of food hand-outs to the electorate, he said.
The MDC has threatened to stage mass action against the government if they perceive the election to have been rigged in favour of the ruling party.
But Mugabe, who is registered to vote in Highfield, where he owns a house, has urged his followers to relegate the MDC to the "electoral scrap heap".
He accused the opposition party, popular among Zimbabwe's urban dwellers, of being imposed by foreigners and not a genuine expression of the people's will.
The two by-elections are being held after the death of former MDC lawmaker for Kuwadzana and the party's spokesperson, Learnmore Jongwe. He died in prison last year while awaiting trial for murdering his wife.
Prominent Zimbabwean socialist Munyaradzi Gwisai, the former MDC lawmaker for Highfield was expelled from the party for going against its policies.
- SAPA
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