While Zimbabwe’s opposition on Sunday claimed a landslide victory, no official results from the 29 March polls have been released by the electoral commission, cranking up the tension surrounding the vote count.
Christian Alliance, a grouping of pro-democracy church organisations, said the “deep silence” from the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission (ZEC) was causing undue alarm.
FRYGT FOR URO
– To avoid any further distress, and in order to calm all the citizens, we urgently appeal to ZEC and other relevant authorities to immediately release all results that are now available. Any further delay could lead to unpredictable and undesirable behaviour by the citizens as they continue to rely on unofficial results, Bishop Levy Kadenge, the Christian Alliance convenor, told IRIN.
UOFFICIELLE TAL TYDER PÅ SEJR TIL OPPOSITION
The unofficial results put the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) and its leader Morgan Tsvangirai well ahead in urban areas – as was expected.
But the party has also reportedly done remarkably well in the countryside, the traditional stronghold of President Robert Mugabe.
Several cabinet ministers and leading members of the ruling ZANU-PF party may have lost their seats, which set off celebrations in the capital, Harare.
The MDC’s count was based on the results posted outside each voting centre on Sunday morning.
But they are yet to be endorsed by the ZEC, which wants to scrutinise the returns from each constituency at its “Command Centre”, set up at the Harare Conference Centre.
TAVSHED SKABER BEKYMRING FOR SVINDEL
The opposition alleges that the delay in releasing the results is evidence that electoral fraud is underway.
– They have the figures, everyone saw the figures. They were shocked into immobility by what they saw. They are now trying to cook the figures, claimed a political analyst, who asked not to be named.
Kilde: www.irinnews.org
