Zimbabwe opposition leads in early poll results
Posted on: Sunday, 27 November 2005, 02:26 CST
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.
Source: REUTERS
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