Zimbabwe opposition leads in early poll results

HARARE (Reuters) – Zimbabwe’s main opposition party took an
early lead in an election for the Senate, early results showed,
despite a split over whether it should contest the poll that
has thrown the party into crisis.

In results announced on state television on Sunday, the
opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) swept all five
seats in the Bulawayo metropolitan province although figures
showed a majority had stayed at home.

MDC leader Morgan Tsvangirai called for a boycott of the
poll, saying that to contest would lend legitimacy to a process
designed to entrench the power of President Robert Mugabe and
the ruling ZANU-PF party.

But senior MDC leaders rejected his demand and a faction
led by Secretary-General Welshman Ncube fielded 26 candidates,
mostly in the southwestern Matabeleland provinces.

The average voter turn-out was less than 10 percent in the
province but observers said the national average could be
around 20 percent of the 3.2 million registered voters.

The Zimbabwe Election Support Network, a local group that
fights for free and fair elections, said most people had stayed
away because they were not aware of the role of the senate.

“This re-emphasises ZESN’s concerns on the ill-timing of
the senatorial elections which comes on the backdrop of an
imploding economy and a political crisis,” the group said in a
statement seen by Reuters on Sunday.

Sunday’s results showed that ZANU-PF had won two of the
five seats in Harare province, a traditional opposition
stronghold. More results are expected throughout the day.

ZANU-PF went into Saturday’s elections a certain winner,
with 35 of the 66 seats already in hand, thanks to laws that
guarantee seats to ruling party loyalists. An opposition
stay-away call that has seriously weakened Mugabe’s only real
political challengers virtually assures a ruling party win.