ARMED soldiers savagely beat the family of Harare's former mayor yesterday as Robert Mugabe defied the world and forged ahead with plans for Friday's election.
The 84-year-old president appears determined to force voters to the polls and is refusing to acknowledge the withdrawal from the race of opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai.
Mr Tsvangirai's Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) party accused Mug
abe's Zanu-PF of orchestrating "an orgy of violence" against opposition supporters since he withdrew from the election on Sunday.
Around ten soldiers raided the family home of Elias Mudzuri, the former Harare mayor, in southern Zaka, beating up his 80-year-old father and shooting two relatives, the MDC's publicity and information department said.
Militias also attacked the homes of MDC councillors in the central town of Chinhoyi, forcing families to flee. And, in Harare's busy Masa suburb yesterday, four armed men abducted an MDC driver.
In another sinister attack, a lawyer from the northern town of Bindura was abducted as he prepared to make a bail application for a detained MDC supporter, legal sources said.
Mr Tsvangirai won against Mr Mugabe in the first round of polling on 29 March, but said he was pulling out of Friday's run-off vote because his supporters had been told they would be killed if they voted for him.
The MDC has called for Mr Tsvangirai to be declared the winner of the election on the basis of the first round, until a free and fair poll can be held.
In its strongest criticism yet, South Africa's governing African National Congress (ANC) yesterday said it was deeply dismayed by the actions of the Zimbabwe government, "which is riding roughshod over the hard-won democratic rights of the people".
Mr Tsvangirai spent a second night at the Dutch embassy where he took refuge on Sunday following a tip-off soldiers were on their way to his home in Harare's Strathaven suburb.
He hinted he would leave in the next two days.
Mr Tsvangirai's deputy, Tendai Biti, has been in custody for almost a fortnight. Most of the opposition's top officials are now in hiding.
The MDC claims violence has already claimed the lives of more than 80 party supporters. There are fears Mr Mugabe will trigger more attacks as he reacts to unprecedented UN criticism of his government.
Late last night, the UN Security Council said in a statement that it "condemns the campaign of violence against the political opposition ahead of the second round of presidential elections".
Council members said that the violence and restrictions on opposition activists "have made it impossible for a free and fair poll to go ahead".
The full article contains 451 words and appears in The Scotsman newspaper.
