Zimbabwes præsident benyttede “Heltenes Dag” til sydende udfald mod sine hjemlige politiske modstandere, sine kritikere i Vesten og NGOer, som han sagde havde ladet sig manipulere.
Robert Mugabe launched a stinging attack on his opposition rivals in his first public speech since he won Zimbabwe’s disputed presidential election rejecting PM Morgan Tsvangirai’s claims that the vote was stolen, BBC online reports Monday.
Mr Tsvangirai’s Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) has lodged a legal challenge against the elections, demanding they be rerun.
Mr Mugabe won 61 per cent of the vote in the election on 31 July, while Mr Tsvangirai came second with 35 per cent, according to official results.
The president’s Zanu-PF party also gained a parliamentary majority of more than two-thirds, winning 160 of the 210 seats.
The venom with which Mr Mugabe attacked his political rivals speaks of an unrepentant politician (uden anger), who despised the power-sharing government that some believe gave him political respite over the past four years.
“They can go hang,” he said, apparently referring to his former coalition partners. “Even dogs will not sniff their corpses.”
Zimbabwe’s Western detractors had been “put to shame”, he added. “Never will we go back on our victory.”
Non-governmental organisations had been used to rig elections in 2008, he claimed, but Zanu-PF had never stopped planning since then and had “buried thieves in our midst”.
The MDC´s main complaints were:
* Bribery – Village leaders were reportedly given food and kitchenware to persuade people to vote for Zanu-PF
* Manipulation of voter roll – Voters said to have had most trouble registering in urban areas, where the MDC is strongest. More than a million names allegedly duplicates or belong to dead people
* Voters turned away – The MDC says 900.000 people were turned away from polling stations, mainly in the capital
* Intimidation – There were reports of traditional leaders threatening villagers if they voted for MDC
* Abuse (misbrug) of assisted voting – The MDC claims literate people were told to say they were illiterate so that they could be “assisted by Zanu-PF people”
