The first results from a recount of votes cast in last month’s elections showed Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe’s Zanu-PF party retaining a seat that the opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) had challenged.
The state-controlled Zimbabwe Electoral Commmission announced that Zanu-PF hung onto the Goromonzi West seat in the 210-seat House of Assembly.
The constituency is one of only two where a recount was demanded by the MDC, which won the Assembly vote held alongside parliamentary elections on March 29.
PHOTO: AP
Zanu-PF has demanded a recount of 21 constituencies.
The MDC claimed that the results posted outside polling stations in Goromonzi West had shown it winning the seat but that this was not reflected in the final result.
The recount, which started on Saturday, also covers votes cast for president in the 23 constituencies, despite the presidential results not yet having been released.
MDC leader Morgan Tsvangirai has claimed victory over Mugabe in the presidential poll but Zanu-PF says that election was too close to call.
Meanwhile, a state-controlled newspaper yesterday urged Zimbabwe’s neighbors to broker talks on a government of national unity led by Mugabe.
The call marks a departure from Zanu-PF’s previous calls for a runoff vote between Mugabe and Tsvangirai — calls the MDC had rejected.
The newspaper said the socio-economic environment in Zimbabwe was “not conducive and the country’s political dynamics so distorted” that a free and fair runoff was “literally impossible.”
“Accordingly, the most viable and safest way forward is for the SADC [Southern African Development Community] to mediate negotiations for a transitional government of national unity,” the editorial said.
Because there been no outright winner in the election, the paper asserted, such a government should be led by Mugabe.
The unity government would hold a referendum on a new constitution drafted with the help of SADC members and the international community before organizing “fresh free and fair elections,” the editorial said.
It was not clear to what extent the article reflected ruling party thinking. The MDC had yet to react.
Meanwhile, the US has asked China to withdraw a cache of its weapons destined for Zimbabwe and halt further arms shipments to that country, the US State Department said on Tuesday.
Beijing was told “to refrain from making additional shipments and, if possible, to bring this one back,” department spokesman Tom Casey said, referring to a Chinese ship loaded with arms intended for Zimbabwe and now reportedly headed to Angola.
China defended the shipment, saying it was part of normal bilateral trade, but suggested the arms might not be delivered due to problems offloading the cargo.
“As Zimbabwe could not receive the cargo as scheduled, China Ocean Shipping Corp had to give up the Durban port and is now considering carrying back this cargo,” Chinese foreign ministry spokeswoman Jiang Yu (姜瑜) told reporters in Beijing on Tuesday, referring to the state-owned COSCO shipping firm.
Human Rights Watch (HRW) also urged China to cease arms deliveries to Zimbabwe because “the very high risk exists of such weapons being used against the civilian population,” it said in a statement.
“China prides itself on being a ‘responsible power,’” said Sophie Richardson, HRW’s Asia advocacy director. “This means it has no business shipping arms to an abusive government in the middle of a brutal and violent crackdown.”
But Casey said that the US “would hope that it would be clear to the Chinese” that given the instability in Zimbabwe and “real and visible” abuses committed by its security forces, providing additional weapons “is something which is not necessary right now.”
The An Yue Jiang was carrying 3 million rounds of assault rifle ammunition, 3,000 mortar rounds and 1,500 rocket-propelled grenades, a South African paper reported.
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