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All eyes on Zanu-PF meeting
04/04/2008 09:04 - (SA)
Harare - Zimbabweans hoping elections will bring relief from an economic catastrophe on Friday anxiously await a leadership meeting expected to discuss the biggest challenge to President Robert Mugabe's 28-year rule.
Ruling Zanu-PF party sources said the president would chair
a party leadership meeting called for Friday.
Senior Zanu-PF official Didymus Mutasa declined to comment
on whether the party was planning for a runoff against MDC
leader Morgan Tsvangirai, although another official said earlier
it was ready for a vote and would win it.
Mugabe faces deep discontent as Zimbabwe suffers the world's
highest inflation rate of more than 100 000%, a virtually
worthless currency and severe food and fuel shortages.
Senate results
Delayed results of the election to the senate - which must
precede presidential results - trickled in on Thursday night.
First results issued by the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission
(ZEC) showed Tsvangirai's MDC and Mugabe's ruling Zanu-PF each
winning five seats out of 60 contested for the senate,
parliament's upper house.
Zimbabweans are most interested in word on Mugabe's
intentions since he lost control of parliament's lower house for
the first time. They have been waiting since Saturday's election
to hear whether he was also defeated in the presidential vote.
"I'm happy that the MDC has won the parliamentary elections,
we needed the change and I think things will start getting
better now but the presidency is the most important one and we
need official results," said Kelvin Matongo, an information
technology technician.
Mugabe's next move?
"ZEC is being very unfair. If it is our right to vote then
it is also our right to know the results as soon as possible
after voting. The problem is they (ZEC) are not explaining why
they are delaying. All they are saying is 'be patient'."
The MDC, and many Zimbabweans, believe the unprecedented
delay in issuing results masks attempts by Mugabe's entourage to
find a way out of the crisis.
All the signs are that Mugabe, a liberation war leader still
respected in Africa, is in the worst trouble of his rule after
facing an unprecedented challenge in the elections because of
the collapse of the Zimbabwean economy.
Analysts said Mugabe was believed to have convened the
leadership to discuss their next move after Zanu-PF's first
defeat in a parliamentary election and to gauge how much support
there was for him running in a second round presidential poll.
"Everyone knows that the presidency is the main post and
that's why those results are so important," said Tafara Butayi
an account executive with a cellular service provider.
"Until we know those I think people will continue to be
sceptical."
Zanu-PF projections show Mugabe failing to win a majority
for the first time since he took power after independence from
Britain in 1980. But they also show Tsvangirai falling short of
the required absolute majority to avoid a second round.
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