(dpa) - Partial results
from a recount of votes cast in Zimbabwe's general elections showed the
opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) poised to retain its majority
in the lower house of parliament.
With 13 seats out of the 23 being recounted announced, no seat won by the MDC
in the March 29 elections had gone to President Robert Mugabe's Zanu-PF party,
the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission (ZEC) said.
Zanu-PF needs to regain nine seats to win back its majority in the 210-seat
House of Assembly, where the MDC won 109 seats to Zanu-PF's 97 at the first
count.
ZEC chairman George Chiweshe said Saturday afternoon that 18 constituencies had
finished recounting but didn't divulge the extra results, merely saying that
there had been "no major changes so far - just variation in figures."
Chiweshe said ZEC expected to finish the parliamentary recount by Monday and
would "immediately thereafter" carry out the verification and
collation of results from the partial recount of votes cast in the presidential
election.
Zimbabweans have been waiting four weeks to know the outcome of the March 29
presidential election. MDC leader Morgan Tsvangirai claims he ended Mugabe's
28-year rule in the vote, a claim Zanu-PF rejects, saying neither won an
outright majority and that a runoff is needed.
The delayed results have stoked tensions in Zimbabwe, where Zanu-PF youth
militia and soldiers have gone on the rampage in recent weeks, attacking people
suspected of "voting wrongly."
The MDC claimed five more of its members had been killed in these attacks in
recent days bringing to 15, by its count, the number of party members who have
been lost to the violence.
On Friday, armed police raided the party's headquarters in Harare, arresting
over 200 people - mostly people displaced by violence in rural areas - saying
they were suspected of involvement in post-poll attacks.
By Saturday most of the detainees with babies had been released, leaving around
250 people, including two MDC parliamentarians in custody, MDC lawyer Alec
Muchadehama said. No charges had been brought against the detainees, he said.
Police also searched Friday the offices of the Zimbabwe Election Support
Network (ZESN) for "subversive material." The independent election
observation network produced an estimate days after the vote showing Mugabe
trailing Tsvangirai in second place.
The crackdown comes amid the first independent reports of revenge attacks by
frustrated MDC supporters against Zanu-PF supporters.
Human Rights Watch said Friday it had documented several incidents of
"retaliatory violence by MDC supporters" but that "the scope of
these incidents bears no comparison to the widespread state-sponsored violence
by ZANU-PF and its allies."
As the international furore over the Zimbabwean impasse continues, South
Africa's ambassador to the United Nations Security Council said the body would
hold its first discussions on the post-election impasse in Zimbabwe on Tuesday.
South Africa is currently chairing the council and its President Thabo Mbeki is
southern Africa's mediator in Zimbabwe. Until now South Africa had been
reluctant to discuss Zimbabwe at the UN level but Mbeki's own African National
Congress party and the South African labour movement have become increasingly
critical of his "quiet diplomacy" approach and urged more
intervention.
The United States, which this week declared Tsvangirai the "clear
winner" of the presidential election, had also called for the Security
Council to take up the issue of violence in Zimbabwe.
US Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs, Jendayi Frazer, is in
Africa for meetings with key leaders on the Zimbabwe issue.
After talks with officials in South Africa and with Angolan President Eduardo
dos Santos, she was also scheduled to meet with Zambian President Levy
Mwanawasa at the weekend.
