ZIMBABWEANS were last night holding elections that President Robert Mugabe insists will tighten his party's 25-year grip on power. Meanwhile, two British journalists were arrested in Zimbabwe today while interviewing voters and charged with violating the country's media laws, a police spokesman said. Toby John Harden, 37, and Julian Paul Simmonds, 46, who were working for the British Sunday Telegraph, were arrested near a polling station in the small town of Norton, 40km west of the capital, said police spokesman Wayne Bvudzhijena. "We have arrested two British nationals .. they are being charged under AIPPA (media law) for practising without accreditation," Mr Bvudzhijena said.
This year's campaign was surprisingly free of the bloodshed that marred past polls in 2000 and 2002 — but Western observers are certain the election will be just as corrupt. Thousands of people were queueing at polling stations to vote in an election that will be closely watched to see whether it is free and fair. The main Opposition party, the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC), said its supporters had been intimidated and the vote would definitely be rigged by Mugabe's ruling Zimbabwe African National Union-Patriotic Front (ZANU-PF). The MDC said one of its candidates, Siyabonga Malandu of Isinza constituency in Matabeleland Province, had disappeared in the south of Zimbabwe after an attack by government supporters yesterday. Police in the capital, Harare, said they had not yet received any missing persons report. | "He's not missing, we know right where he is." |
Mugabe has promised a big ZANU-PF win against the weakened Opposition in what he says will be a fair poll, but both the U.S. and Europe have dismissed the election as a farce. Mugabe is vying for a two-thirds parliamentary majority — but the MDC hopes a shock is in store for the 81-year-old dictator. MDC leader Morgan Tsvangirai went to a Harare school to vote and sounded confident of victory, even though he asserted that "this is not going to be a free and fair election". "The people will speak today and I am hoping that the outcome will be an MDC victory," he said. On the eve of the vote, Mugabe predicted a big victory for his party and ruled out the formation of a unity government if the MDC performed strongly. "Once we have fought in an election, a party has lost and we have won," he said. "We expect that party to respect the result." Mugabe, who led his country to independence from British rule in 1980, has vowed to "bury" the Opposition, accusing them of colluding with British Prime Minister Tony Blair to recolonise the country. | When Bob sez he's gonna "bury" you, he isn't using a figure of speech |
But the Opposition responded that the election was not about Britain, but rather about providing food and jobs for starving Zimbabweans. Their living standards have dropped drastically since 2000, when Mugabe launched land reforms in which thousands of white-owned farms were seized and distributed to his friends and family blacks. |