Zimbabwe's newly elected opposition party has said it will take its place in parliament under President Robert Mugabe, even though it does not consider last weekend's elections free or fair. The opposition has announced it will challenge the results in 20 constituencies.
The Movement for Democratic Change (MDC), which was formed just nine months ago, has broken President Mugabe's 20-year stranglehold on power following election results announced yesterday morning.
Mr Mugabe's Zimbabwe African National Unity - Patriotic Front (ZANU-PF) won 62 of the 120 contested seats, while the MDC came a close second with 57. A record 65 per cent of the country's 5.1 million voters turned out in the election.
The result means that Mr Mugabe and ZANU-PF will continue to rule Zimbabwe, but any proposed constitutional change will be subject to an opposition veto. "For the first time ever, we have a balanced parliament. Zimbabwe will never be the same again," said the MDC leader, Mr Morgan Tsvangirai.
Mr Tsvangirai will not be leading the MDC in the parliament, however, as his own election bid failed. He announced that he intends to run for office in the 2002 presidential elections.
President Mugabe adopted a conciliatory tone when addressing the nation on state television last night. He congratulated both winners and losers and said he looked forward to working with the new parliament, which was destined to be "very lively".
However, he criticised unnamed international observers who, he said, had come to Zimbabwe "in the mould of the Victorian civilising missions [who] thought they had come to pacify, give virtue and thus redeem us, the natives". They would go home "humbled and educated, highly impressed by how we do things here", he said.
The head of the 190-strong EU observer team, Mr Pierre Schori, earlier said that ZANU-PF leaders had sanctioned the violence and the government had deliberately obstructed the electoral process. The EU is due to give its final report on July 3rd.
Mr Mugabe also reaffirmed his controversial policy of compulsory acquisition of white-owned farms. "There is a great expectation about the land which is still to come to our people in a big way," he said.
The President must now appoint a government. A spokesman, Mr Jonathan Moyo, earlier ruled out the formation of a government of national unity or any power-sharing arrangement with the opposition.
The MDC plan to challenge election results, either through recounts or legal actions, was "not sour grapes", Mr Tsvangirai said, but a result of intense pre-election violence and intimidation which claimed the lives of at least 32 MDC supporters.
The results of an exit poll issued yesterday by the Helen Suzman Foundation suggested the violence had had a serious impact on voting patterns. It found that as many as 41 per cent of voters professed themselves "very scared" or "absolutely terrified" in some of the 20 constituencies sampled over the weekend.
The official results were "clearly rigged", according to the foundation director, Mr R.W. Johnson, who said that without intimidation the MDC would have taken an extra 20 seats.
The capital, Harare, was calm yesterday. In the Mbare township on the edge of the city, Mr Liberty Muchabayi (23), a clothes trader, said there had been a restrained atmosphere since results were announced.
"ZANU supporters used to come here shouting slogans and burning our materials. We were afraid of further violence but now we are a little more comforted," he said.
Mr Samuel Mandoto (32) said he hoped the advent of a strong opposition would invigorate the parliament. "You have two teams, there is competition. And where there is competition, there is change," he said.
Reuters adds: "Britain is ready to look for a fresh start and a new relationship with the government [of Zimbabwe] if it pursues policies of reform and national reconciliation," the Foreign Secretary, Mr Robin Cook, said yesterday.
Mr Cook, a strong critic of Mr Mugabe in the run-up to last weekend's elections, called for national reconciliation in the former British colony.
Britain was still prepared to deliver £36 million of aid, much of it to fund land reforms benefiting Zimbabwe's rural poor, if Mr Mugabe adopted policies which responded to the needs of the people.
"I'm looking for . . . a willingness to work with the opposition in parliament," Mr Cook told reporters. "I'm looking for a return to the rule of law . . . in respect to land reform, and the decisions which need to be faced up to avert the economic crisis in Zimbabwe," he said.
Britain led international condemnation of the violence in Zimbabwe in the run-up to the elections, particularly the wave of invasions of white-owned farms. But Mr Mugabe appeared to take little notice of the criticism, which he portrayed as neo-colonial interference and sought to turn to his advantage by shoring up internal support.
Asked what measures Britain could take if Mr Mugabe ignored his call for a fresh start, the Foreign Secretary said: "I'm offering today that we will step up our assistance and enter into new partnership if these steps are taken. If they are not taken, that additional help and that new partnership will not take place."
Officials said Britain would watch closely whether Mr Morgan Tsvangirai, leader of the Movement for Democratic Change, was able to proceed with legal challenges or requests for recounts in 20 seats which he said the opposition would have easily won if the elections had been free and fair.
It would also follow the fate of white farms to be taken over by the government, and wanted to see Mr Mugabe reach agreement on economic reforms with the World Bank and International Monetary Fund.