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Opposition threatens violence
12/01/2008 21:00 - (SA)
Harare - Zimbabwe's main opposition party on Saturday vowed a repeat of Kenya's recent election violence if veteran President Robert Mugabe rigs joint presidential and legislative polls due in March.
"You saw and heard what happened in Kenya. It's nothing compared to what we will have here if Mugabe rigs the elections again," said the Movement for Democratic Change's secretary for information, Nelson Chamisa.
Clashes in Kenya following last month's disputed presidential polls have left more than 600 people dead.
"You can't have a thief rob you twice and let him keep his hands," Chamisa told hundreds of party supporters at the launch of their election programme in a suburb of Harare.
"We are gathered here to launch the new Zimbabwe Campaign, a campaign for free and fair elections and we want those elections to be free and fair."
Mugabe, in power since independence from Britain in 1980, was accused by the MDC and Western governments of rigging the last elections in 2002.
While the MDC once posed the most serious threat to Mugabe's rule, it has been severely undermined by internal divisions with nearly half of its lawmakers no longer loyal to long-time party leader Morgan Tsvangirai.
Chamisa however said the MDC would mend fences and present a united front in the March elections whose exact date has yet to be announced.
"We want a united front," he said. "We want the like of (rival faction leader Arthur) Mutambara and Daniel Shumba to play their part."
Shumba, a former official in the ruling Zimbabwe African National Union - Patriotic Front (Zanu-PF), launched his own party two years ago.
MDC secretary general Tendai Biti told the crowd: "Zanu-PF is a paper construct, when you push it, it falls. We are going to push it and it's going to fall.
"Zanu-PF has done what the war failed to do and that is to destroy the economy."
Zimbabwe is in the throes of economic crisis with inflation last announced at nearly 8 000% in September. Economists estimate that the real figure is now closer to 50 000%.
- AFP
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