(dpa) - Zimbabwe's opposition was left considering other pressure tactics Tuesday after they failed
to mobilize support for a nationwide stay-at-home protest to call for the
release of results from the country's presidential elections.
The Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) called the open-ended stayaway to put
pressure on the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission (ZEC) to release results from the
poll, in which MDC leader Morgan Tsvangirai claims to have ousted longtime
President Robert Mugabe.
But the call went largely unheeded on the first day with most people in the
capital Harare carrying on with their usual business.
Security was stepped up in cities around the country ahead of the strike. Police
and soldiers took up position at checkpoints around Harare but the day passed
off mostly peacefully with only isolated reports of minor flare-ups and a
handful of arrests.
Police said they suspected MDC members of torching a bus in
the Warren Park area of Harare and Tafadzwa Mugabe of Zimbabwe Lawyers for
Human Rights (ZLHR), said eight people, included a freelance journalist, had
been arrested in Harare.
The whereabouts of the detainees was not immediately known. No-one was
injured in the bus attack.
"Every Zimbabwean should have stayed at home until (ZEC)
announced the results for the presidential poll," MDC spokesman Nqobizitha
Mlilo said in a statement after it became apparent the action had been largely
ineffective.
Analysts had earlier predicted as much, given that four out of five Zimbabweans
are unemployed and that the rest are under pressure to feed their families amid
inflation of 165,000 per cent.
Several people interviewed by Deutsche Presse-Agentur dpa in Harare said they
had gone to work for fear of reprisal.
"In the previous stayaways, some people would come after and threaten us
if we continued listening to the MDC," said Spiwe Samunga, who works in a
clothes shop.
Machel Mhofu, a 28-year-old mechanic, said he was intimidated by the heavy
police presence in his neighbourhood.
"I thought they would go from door to door asking why we are at
home," he said.
The ZEC's failure to announce the poll outcome 17 days after the vote has
caused consternation in Zimbabwe and abroad.
On Monday Harare High Court threw out the MDC's urgent application for an order
forcing the election body to end the suspense.
Despite its court setback, the MDC was back in the High Court Tuesday afternoon
to protest the ZEC's plans for a partial vote recount. The judge
deferred judgement in that case.
The ZEC has announced plans to recount votes cast for
parliament and president in 23 out of 210 constituencies, at the instigation of
Zanu-PF in 22 cases. The MDC says a recount of the presidential votes
cannot be requested until the results are released.
MDC leader Morgan Tsvangirai claims to have soundly defeated
Mugabe but Mugabe's party claims neither Mugabe nor Tsvangirai won outright and
that a runoff will be needed.
After initially opposing a runoff Tsvangirai has indicated at least twice in
recent days he would partake in a second round if Zimbabwe's neighbours in the
Southern African Development Community could ensure it was free and fair.
The party has expressed alarm over mounting attacks by Mugabe's party
supporters against its supporters, claiming two MDC members have been killed
and more than 200 injured.
On Monday, the ZLHR lawyers' group said it had reports of 130 political
attacks, including two people killed.
South African Development Community (SADC) mediator in Zimbabwe, South
African's President Thabo Mbeki has downplayed the tensions, saying after
meeting Mugabe at the weekend the election standoff did not constitute a
"crisis" - an assessment that been criticized by his own party and
many Zimbabweans.
Mbeki is expected to come under pressure to discuss the progress of his
mediation at a United Nations Security Council meeting on Africa which he is
set to chair in New York Wednesday.