HEAVILY-ARMED riot police stormed the headquarters of the opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) in Harare yesterday, as the post-election crackdown by Robert Mugabe, the country's president, took a new and brutal turn.
Scores of people were beaten and arrested, with 200-300 people taken away, the MDC claimed. They included injured campaign workers who had taken refuge at the offices after being attacked, and pregnant women and children.
Police also ransacked
the offices of the Zimbabwe Election Support Network (ZESN), an independent electoral watchdog, and seized material on vote counting from both offices.
ZESN was one of the first organisations to announce that Mr Mugabe, 84, had lost the first round of presidential elections on 29 March to Morgan Tsvangirai, the leader of the MDC.
Noel Kututwa, chairman of the ZESN, and his deputy, Rindai Chipfunde-Vavawere, were both in hiding yesterday.
Mr Kututwa said: "(The police] said they were looking for subversive material likely to overthrow (the] government using unconstitutional means."
The MDC claims at least ten of its supporters have been killed since the election, while the group Zimbabwe Lawyers for Human Rights has reported dozens of electoral officials have been arrested for allegedly "cheating" Mr Mugabe of votes.
Tensions appear at an all-time high in Zimbabwe, with claims the government is stalling on a partial recount because officials have not been able to "find" enough votes for Mr Mugabe.
The Zimbabwe Electoral Commission (ZEC), headed by former military lawyer George Chiweshe, began to recount votes in 23 constituencies last Saturday amid a barrage of international criticism. The opposition claimed the ZEC had set out to overturn the MDC's slim parliamentary majority.
By last night, results from only three of the constituencies had been officially announced – all of them unchanged – with Mr Mugabe's Zanu-PF party keeping two parliamentary seats and the MDC one.
According to reports, the recount has so far only been able to find an extra 7,000 votes for Mr Mugabe, not nearly enough to whittle down Mr Tsvangirai's lead. "Things are not going according to plan," the Zimbabwe Independent quoted a well-placed source as saying.
Press reports suggest a second election, presumably a run-off between Mr Mugabe and Mr Tsvangirai, is likely to take place in the first three weeks of May.
The ministry of foreign affairs cancelled a summit scheduled for 5 -15 May, citing the "uncompleted electoral process".
Meanwhile, there were unconfirmed reports yesterday that a Chinese ship carrying £100 million of small arms was heading for Angola after dockworkers refused to unload it at the South African port of Durban.
From Angola, which has close contacts with Mr Mugabe's government, the arms could be flown to Zimbabwe in transport planes, it was claimed.
Yesterday, Mr Mugabe sent a delegation to Angola, led by Emmerson Mnangagwa, the feared former security minister once touted as the president's possible successor.
Elsewhere, Jendayi Frazer, a US envoy touring the region, said during a visit to South Africa that Mr Tsvangirai was the "clear victor" in the election.
The full article contains 519 words and appears in The Scotsman newspaper.
