Harare
24 June 2008
Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe says he has not ruled outnegotiations with the opposition MDC but elections must go ahead onFriday to meet a legal obligation. Meanwhile, reports are coming infrom several parts of Zimbabwe that violence is continuing againstopposition supporters. Peta Thornycroft reports for VOA from Harare.
PresidentMugabe, 84, made it clear at a rally Tuesday that he won't refuse tonegotiate with the opposition party, The Movement for DemocraticChange, but he determined to hold the poll on Friday because, in hiswords, there is "only one thing for us to accomplish... it's the legalprocess on the 27th of June."
The MDC on Tuesday handed aletter to the electoral commission formally withdrawing from thepresidential runoff. Tsvangirai said the election was rigged and hissupporters face too much violence for him to keep running. He won thefirst round of voting on March 29, but lacked an outright majorityagainst Mr. Mugabe.
Observers are worried that the violence willcontinue to spiral out of control. One ominous sign is the withdrawalof independent monitors who would be able to observe and protect votersat the polls.
As of Tuesday, 38 organizations say they havewithdrawn after the Zimbabwe Election Support Network, or ZESN, saidonly 500 observers were able to get accreditation. There were more than9,000 observers allowed to monitor the election on March 29.
ZESNsaid it received a letter from Justice Minister Patrick Chinamasa onFriday saying that it would only be allowed 500 observers. As ofTuesday, the invitation for these 500 had not yet been received andZESN said it could not fulfill its mandate to effectively observe theelection.
Because the ZANU-PF said it is determined to hold aone-candidate election on Friday, many fear that ZANU-PF supporterswill force people to vote by gunpoint.
The U.N.Undersecretary-General for Political Affairs B. Lynn Pascoe said ampleevidence shows Mugabe's government is waging a "widespread campaign ofretaliation and threat" and spreading "fear, hostility and attacks"against its opponents.
Mugabe's government is no longer capableof holding a legitimate election, Pascoe told the council, and Mugabe'splan to push ahead with the runoff "would only increase divisions andproduce discredited results."
Already, tens of thousands ofZimbabweans have been uprooted from their homes and 85 people have diedin election violence, human rights groups say. Tsvangirai hasrepeatedly been detained by police and contended with warnings of astate-sponsored assassination plot. His top deputy was arrested ontreason charges that carry the death penalty.