Mugabe strengthens hold in new parliament

Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe appointed unelected MPs ahead of today's opening of parliament to boost the large majority…

Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe appointed unelected MPs ahead of today's opening of parliament to boost the large majority his ruling party won in disputed elections.

Mr Mugabe returned vice president Joseph Msika and outgoing speaker Emmerson Mnangagwa to parliament.

Mr Msika did not stand in the March 31st elections; Mr Mnangagwa lost to an opposition candidate.

ZANU-PF won 78 of the 120 elected seats, but Mr Mugabe has the power to appoint another 20 members, along with ten traditional leaders, giving his party much more than the two-thirds majority that allows him to change the constitution at will.

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The opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) has cited "serious and unaccountable gaps" in vote tallies to back its accusations, supported by Western powers, that Mr Mugabe's party rigged the election.

ZANU-PF denies cheating, and African observers said the poll was free and fair.

The MDC won 41 seats, 16 less than in the last parliamentary polls in 2000, which it also said ZANU-PF won fraudulently. The remaining elected seat went to former Information Minister Jonathan Moyo, who won as an independent after falling out with the ruling party.

Mr Mugabe dismisses the MDC as a puppet of former colonial power Britain, which he said has led a Western campaign to push him from power because of his seizure of white-owned commercial farms for redistribution among landless blacks.