Mugabe rush to be sworn in after claim of poll 'landslide'

Re-elected President plans to face down his critics at an African Union summit after a poll conducted amid violence and threats
Chris McGreal in Harare
The Observer, Sunday June 29, 2008
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Voters check the initial results after the run off presidential elections at a voting station in Harare. Photograph: EPA


Robert Mugabe is expected to be sworn in as President of Zimbabwe again today after one of the bloodiest and most controversial elections in African history. Zimbabwean officials said that Mugabe had won a landslide victory with most of the count completed in Friday's widely derided presidential run-off.

Officials were reported as saying that, with two-thirds of the count completed, there had been a dramatic reversal of Morgan Tsvangirai's lead in the first round of elections three months ago, giving Mugabe a resounding victory before he heads to an African Union summit to confront growing criticism from the continent's other leaders.

But the ruling Zanu-PF party's claims that voters have deserted the opposition Movement for Democratic Change in droves to support Mugabe's claim that the vote is part of a struggle to maintain Zimbabwe's independence have met with incredulity and anger.

Washington called the vote a sham and said it will seek a UN Security Council resolution this week to send a 'strong message of deterrence' to Zimbabwe's leader. The US Secretary of State, Condoleezza Rice, said Washington 'will use everything in our power for appropriate sanctions'. The US is also expected to press for an arms embargo on Zimbabwe and a travel ban on its officials.

Gordon Brown yesterday said that Zimbabwe had reached a new low point with the election. 'We will work with international partners to find a way to close this sickening chapter that has cost so many lives,' the Prime Minister said.

The head of one foreign election observer mission, Marwick Khumalo, who leads the Pan-African Parliament monitors, said that many Zimbabweans had voted only out of fear and that the turnout was in truth 'very, very low' after Tsvangirai withdrew from the race because of the violence.

Khumalo also suggested that many voters deliberately defaced their ballots after they were intimidated into going to the polls. He said that at one polling place in rural Matabeleland nearly 40 per cent of the ballots were spoilt, and that at another in Harare the combined numbers of opposition and spoilt ballots matched the vote for the President. 'There was a lot of intimidation for people to vote,' said Khumalo, a parliamentarian from Swaziland. 'You can tell people just wanted to get the indelible ink [on a finger to prove they had voted] to protect themselves from the hooligans.'

The ballot appears to have produced a low turnout in cities, but terrorised voters were herded to the polls in some rural areas and intimidated into voting for Mugabe. He is apparently in a hurry to be sworn in so he can attend the AU summit in Egypt tomorrow from what he perceives to be a position of strength.

Tsvangirai last week called on the AU to oversee a transitional administration in Zimbabwe until legitimate elections can be held, although how such an arrangement could work is still unclear. 'It's now a matter of peace and security,' said Tsvangirai's spokesman, Nelson Chamisa. 'We hope the matter gets the urgent attention it deserves. We should not wait for rivers of blood and the complete breakdown of order.' In an interview with the Sunday Telegraph, Tsvangirai suggested that Mugabe could still play a role in such a transitional regime, stating that it was 'not inconceivable' that he could remain as ceremonial president, with Tsvangirai taking of the role of executive Prime Minister.

Desmond Tutu, the former Archbishop of Cape Town, urged African states to declare Mugabe an illegitimate leader and impose a blockade on Zimbabwe. Mugabe said last week that he will tell his critics that many of their elections are worse than Zimbabwe's.

The AU is divided. While countries such as Nigeria, Botswana, Kenya and Tanzania have all criticised the poll to some degree, there is less inclination for a confrontation with Mugabe from South Africa and his allies, such as the Democratic Republic of Congo and Angola. The AU commission chairman, Jean Ping, has urged compromise.

Mugabe's Foreign Minister, Simbarashe Mumbengegwi, attempted to forestall a debate on Zimbabwe at a preparatory meeting on Friday and asked to be allowed to read a statement. But there were strong objections from a number of countries, including Liberia, Senegal and Sierra Leone.

The European Commission, meanwhile, upped the ante by calling for future talks on a political solution to be based on the first-round election result in which Tsvangirai won most votes. AU diplomats say Tsvangirai now needs to radically rethink his position that he would not consider power-sharing or a transitional government.

'That was never going to happen,' said Zimbabwean political analyst John Makumbe. 'They are going to have to swallow their pride. Don't forget that the post-Mugabe era has already begun and there are many figures within the ruling party who are already jostling for position.' Tsvangirai fears that, as a Prime Minister under Mugabe, he would be emasculated, just as Mugabe's former opponent Joshua Nkomo was in the 1980s.

· Additional reporting by Alex Duval Smith