SHOW of force . . . police shave increased their presence on Harare’s streets

HARARE – Zimbabwe police on Monday accused the opposition of plotting violence and said they were ready for “any eventuality” ahead of a nationwide work boycott called by the opposition to press for the release of results of last month’s presidential election.

The opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) party, which on Monday lost a court bid to force electoral authorities to release results of the March 29 poll, has called on Zimbabweans to boycott work beginning Tuesday until results were released.

Police spokesman Wayne Bvudzijena said the police had stepped up patrols in residential areas and city centres across the nation and were ready to crush any disturbances, as Zimbabwe’s election stalemate increasingly looks like it will degenerate into violent conflict between MDC supporters and state security forces.

Bvudzijena said: “The police are ready for any eventuality. We are aware that the opposition wants to cause unnecessary violence but the police will be ready for them.”

He spoke as more police, some of them heavily armed, increased their presence on Harare’s streets, in what seemed a show of force designed to intimidate the opposition and workers not to go ahead with the job boycott, let alone take to the streets in protest.

Public political gatherings and rallies have been banned in the capital Harare.

But the MDC remained defiant, vowing to mobilise workers to never go to work until the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission (ZEC) released the results of the presidential election held on March 29 together with elections for parliament and local councils.

“We are calling on the people of Zimbabwe to speak against ZEC's failure to release the results. We are calling for a mass stay-away until the results are released,” MDC vice president Thokozani Khupe told journalists in Harare.

The ZEC has released results for the other polls but withheld those of the presidential election that President Robert Mugabe is believed to have lost to MDC leader Morgan Tsvangirai.

High Court Judge Tendai Uchena earlier on Monday dismissed an MDC application demanding an immediate release of the results. He did not give reasons for his ruling.

The MDC went to court to force the ZEC to release results, saying the commission was withholding results in a bid to fix the vote and force a re-run of the poll that it says Mugabe is preparing to use violence and terror to win.

Tsvangirai says he won the presidential race with more than 50 percent of the vote, which is enough to avoid a second round run-off. But the ruling ZANU PF party and independent election observers say Tsvangirai won with less than 50 percent of the vote, warranting a re-run of the ballot.

Delays in announcing results for the presidential poll have plunged Zimbabwe into a crisis and southern African leaders who met in Zambia at the weekend urged ZEC to release the results expeditiously. They called on the Harare government to ensure a second round ballot between Mugabe and Tsvangirai is held in a “secure environment”.

Meanwhile, the High Court is on Tuesday set to hear an application by the MDC challenging attempts by the ZEC to recount votes for the presidential and parliamentary election in 23 constituencies.

The opposition party wants the commission blocked from recounting votes for the presidential election before it has announced results and argues that recounts in the parliamentary vote are illegal because they should have been ordered within 48 hours after the announcement of the results.

ZANU PF, which lost control of parliament for the first time in 28 years when it won 97 seats against 106 taken by the MDC and other opposition candidates, appears to have resigned itself to a run-off election between Mugabe and Tsvangirai to decide who becomes president of Zimbabwe.

But the party could easily take back control of parliament without the need for a new election if it wins nine more seats on the recount. – ZimOnline.