FILE: MDC leader Tsvangirai pulls out of run-off election, says free and fair poll under current climate of violence is impossible

Record ID: 346217

  • Title: FILE: MDC leader Tsvangirai pulls out of run-off election, says free and fair poll under current climate of violence is impossible
  • Date: 23rd June 2008
  • Summary: (W3) DOMBOSHAWA, ZIMBABWE (FILE - APRIL 19, 2008) (REUTERS) PARTY OFFICIALS COUNTING BALLOT BOXES AHEAD OF RECOUNT OF VOTES VARIOUS OF VOTES BEING RECOUNTED
  • Embargoed: 8th July 2008 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Topics: Domestic Politics
  • Reuters ID: LVA8HDV3AR2V8DYFHGBXZ57VNO27
  • Story Text: Zimbabwe opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai pulls out ot the election run-off saying there is a state-run plot to keep President Robert Mugabe in power. Mugabe has vowed never to turn over power to the opposition, which he brands a puppet of Britain and the United States.
    Zimbabwean opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai pulled out of a run-off election against President Robert Mugabe on Sunday (June 22), saying a free and fair poll was impossible in the current climate of violence.
    Speaking only hours after his opposition Movement for Democratic Change reported its rally had been broken up by pro-Mugabe youth militia, Tsvangirai called on the United Nations and the African Union to intervene to stop "genocide" in the former British colony.
    The MDC and Tsvangirai, who beat Mugabe in a March 29 vote but failed to win the absolute majority needed to avoid a second ballot, have repeatedly accused government security forces and militia of strong-arm tactics to ensure a Mugabe victory in the June 27 poll.
    Tsvangirai, who himself had been detained by police five times while campaigning, said 86 MDC supporters had been killed and 200,000 displaced from their homes.
    The MDC released video footage in April of people in hospital displaying bruises, burns and broken bones, and describing attacks by Mugabe supporters.
    Tsvangirai repeated his accusations against government security forces this on Sunday, saying there was a state-sponsored plot to keep the 84-year-old Mugabe in power.

    "We in the MDC cannot ask them (the voters) to cast their vote on June 27, when that vote could cost them their lives," he said.
    Following the disputed March 29 election, Tsvangirai, who went abroad on April 8 to garner support for his movement, said he had had to delay his return to Harare for more than a month abroad after his party said it had discovered a plot to assassinate him.
    Mugabe, who has ruled since independence from Britain in 1980, has in the past denied that his security forces have been responsible for brutal actions and has blamed the violence on the opposition.

    "Sooner or rather than later we are going to accuse the party and the party leadership of being vicariously liable and responsible for those crimes of violence, because there is now a pattern readable across the country and that has to stop, we want to go into the election exercise peacefully," Mugabe said addressing his supporters in a June 10 rally in Kadoma.
    Mugabe has vowed never to turn over power to the opposition, which he brands a puppet of Britain and the United States.
    There was no immediate reaction Sunday from Mugabe to Tsvangirai's decision to pull-out of the run-off but his justice minister, Patrick Chinamasa, said Zimbabwe would proceed with next Friday's poll unless Tsvangirai officially notified the election authorities he was pulling out.
    In a later statement, the MDC said army helicopters were patrolling over Harare and Bulawayo, the second largest city, and that Zimbabwe was effectively under military rule.
    More than 2,000 youth members of Mugabe's ruling ZANU-PAF party were on the rampage, attacking citizens in central Harare, the MDC said.
    If Tsvangirai does formally pull out, Mugabe would then be sworn in for another five-year term. But he could face difficulties governing because the MDC won control of the parliament in the March election.
    The veteran leader has presided over a ruinous slide in a once prosperous economy. Millions have fled the political and economic crisis to neighbouring states.
    Zimbabwe, once one of Africa's most prosperous countries, has seen food production plummet since 2000 when Mugabe's government began seizing thousands of white-owned farms as part of a land redistribution programme to help poor blacks.
    Many of the farms have ended up in the hands of Mugabe loyalists, and the country now faces chronic shortages of meat, milk and other basic foods.
    It has been forced to rely on handouts and imports to feed its people.
    Mugabe has blamed Zimbabwe's former colonial ruler, Britain, her allies and food agencies for his country's food shortages and has accused them of instigating regime change.
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