JOHANNESBURG, South Africa – A day before southern Africa's leaders hold an emergency session on Zimbabwe's disputed election, the government of the beleaguered nation appeared to tighten its control yesterday, banning political rallies, continuing its crackdown on the opposition and arresting the lawyer of its chief rival, Morgan Tsvangirai.
The Movement for Democratic Change, Tsvangirai's party, said yesterday that more than 1,000 of its supporters had been attacked or arrested since the voting took place March 29, fueling a growing chorus of international criticism of President Robert Mugabe's handling of the elections.
In an interview, Tsvangirai, who independent monitors say may have won an outright majority in the election, reiterated his party's decision to boycott a runoff against Mugabe.
But he left an opening, saying he would reconsider if African leaders guaranteed the fairness of the tally in the first round and the security of his supporters during a runoff. “There could be a runoff if it's organized credibly,” Tsvangirai said.
But it is not clear that he has a negotiating partner. Zimbabwe's state-run newspaper, The Herald, said yesterday that Mugabe would not attend today's emergency meeting of heads of state in Lusaka, Zambia.
Instead, four officials in Mugabe's government will go in his place, although his secretary for foreign affairs, Joey Bimha, told The Herald that the meeting was “unnecessary” because the election commission was still tabulating votes.
It has been 13 days since Zimbabweans went to the polls, but election officials have yet to announce the outcome of the presidential race, in which Mugabe, in power for 28 years, is believed to have trailed by a substantial margin.
The long delay, the ban on political rallies, the arrests of election officials on vote-tampering charges and the arrest of Tsvangirai's lawyer have intensified the opposition's assertion that neither the government nor the military has any intention of relinquishing power.
Tsvangirai claimed again yesterday that “a de facto coup” was unfolding.
Nelson Chamisa, a spokesman for Tsvangirai's party, said a campaign of intimidation “on a massive scale” was under way, particularly in areas where Mugabe did not do well in the elections. “They're almost turning those into war zones,” he said.
The scale of the attacks could not be independently verified, but Amnesty International reported Thursday that it had “information about widespread incidents of post-election violence, suggesting the existence of coordinated retribution against known and suspected opposition supporters.”
