Zimbabwe Elections: “The people have spoken with one voice.” - Opposition Leader Tsvangirai

Zimbabwe: Zimbabwean opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai (photo) is believed to have won the presidential elections in Zimbabwe. He laid to rest persistent media reports of a deal in the making with President Robert Mugabe for a concession of defeat and an orderly transition of power following elections, but made clear that he believes Saturday’s presidential and general ballots gave him a mandate to govern.

“Zimbabwe will never be the same,” he said, opening a news conference at Harare’s Meikles Hotel. “The people have spoken with one voice. The vote cast on Saturday was for change and a new beginning. It was a vote for jobs, it was a vote for food, for dignity, for respect, for decency, for equality, for tolerance, for love, and for trust. Our people therefore cannot wait for the execution of that mandate,” Tsvangirai said on Tuesday.

Tsvangirai urged the electoral commission to “proceed with haste” to complete its work of tabulation of results - but announced that his grouping of the opposition Movement for Democratic Change would release its own tallies on Wednesday, compiled based on the results posted outside polling stations across the country.

Tsvangirai indirectly conveyed that he believes he and his party have won the election and intend to take up the reins of power. “Today we face a new challenge,” he said, “that of governing, that of rehabilitating our beloved country.”

Tsvangirai’s remarks capped a third day of anxious waiting by Zimbabweans while the electoral commission released the results of house races in small batches. By the end of the day the commission had released the results for 160 of 210 constituencies with 78 seats going to the ruling ZANU-PF party, 77 to Tsvangirai’s MDC grouping and five seats credited to the rival MDC formation led by Arthur Mutambara.

VOA Correspondent Thomas Chiripasi provides an account of Tsvangirai’s news conference, take a listen:

Mugabe has a good track history of enforcing his wishes with brute force and has hardly moved by criticism. Below are few of his atrocious acts:

• Three years after Zimbabwe got its independence, Robert Mugabe ordered the army to descend on the people of Matabeleland and punish them for their loyalty to Joshua Nkomo.The operation was code named Gukurahundi.
• Mugabe had Tsvangirai arrested after the 2000 elections and charged with treason; this charge was later dismissed. In 2004, Tsvangirai was acquitted of treason for an alleged plot to assassinate Mugabe in the run-up to the 2002 presidential elections.
• In May 2003 Tsvangirai was arrested on a Friday afternoon shortly after giving a press conference, the government alleged he had incited violence.
• In 2005 Mugabe ordered a raid conducted on what the government termed “illegal shelters” in Harare, resulting in 10,000 urban poor being left homeless from “Operation Murambatsvina (English: Operation Drive Out the Rubbish).
• On March 11, 2007 a day after his 55th birthday, Tsvangirai was arrested on his way to a prayer rally in the Harare township of Highfield. He was heavily tortured by police, resulting in deep gashes on his head and a badly swollen eye. See picture below:

When Zimbabwe gained independence 46.5% of the country’s arable land was owned by around 6,000 commercial farmers. Once the “bread basket” of southern Africa and a major agricultural exporter. Today, inflation is 100,000+%, and the country now depends on food programs and support from outside to feed its population - painful consequences of a reckless land reform that led to the eviction of white commercial farmers from their lands. As of September 2006, Mugabe’s family owns three farms which were seized forcibly from their previous owners.

References/Source: VOA, Wikipedia.