ZIMBABWE: OPPOSITI0N PARTY SEEKS COURT ORDER TO EXTEND PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION VOTING FOR A SECOND EXTRA DAY
Record ID:
584928
ZIMBABWE: OPPOSITI0N PARTY SEEKS COURT ORDER TO EXTEND PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION VOTING FOR A SECOND EXTRA DAY
- Title: ZIMBABWE: OPPOSITI0N PARTY SEEKS COURT ORDER TO EXTEND PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION VOTING FOR A SECOND EXTRA DAY
- Date: 12th March 2002
- Summary: (W5) HARARE, ZIMBABWE (MARCH 11, 2002) (REUTERS) 1. SLV VOTERS QUEUING OUTSIDE POLLING STATION; MV PARTY APPOINTED ELECTION MONITORS OUTSIDE POLLING STATION; MV VOTERS ENTER POLLING STATION GATE (9 SHOTS) 0.32 2. MV POLICE AT POLLING STATION GATES AS VOTERS; AV HELICOPTER FLYING ABOVE; SCU VOTERS GETTING FINGER PRINTS CHECKED; SCU MAN CHECKING VOTERS FINGER PRINTS (5 SHOTS) 0.50 3. MV INTERIOR POLLING STATION; SCU VOTING PAPERS (2 SHOTS) 1.00 4. SCU PARTY APPOINTED ELECTION MONITOR WITH VEST THAT READS 'ELECTION MONITORING COMMITTEE' (English) 1.06 5. MV VOTER OUT OF VOTING BOOTH; SCU BALLOT IN BOX; SCU SEAL ON BALLOT BOX; MV ELECTION MONITOR WALKING (6 SHOTS) 1.33 6. (SOUNDBITE) (English) TOM BOYA OF THE SOUTH AFRICAN BUSINESS OBSERVER MISSION SAYING "I think so far, let me say, so far, the counting has not taken place, the election has been free and fair" 1.42 7. SLV MEN IN TRUCKS WITH BALLOT BOXES; SCU ROWS OF BALLOT BOXES ON THE GROUND; SCU SIGN ON BALLOT BOX; MV MONITORS STANDING BY BALLOT BOXES (5 SHOTS) 2.16 (U3) HARARE, ZIMBABWE (MARCH 11, 2002) (REUTERS) 8. SLV LEADER OF THE MOVEMENT FOR DEMOCRATIC CHANGE (MDC) OPPOSITION PARTY, MORGAN TSVANGERAI, AT NEWSCONFERENCE 2.23 9. (SOUNDBITE) (English) TSVANGERAI SAYING "Together we have travelled a very difficult road to achieve democratic change. Your resilience to reclaim your rights as expressed by your overwhelming turnout has shaken the corridors of power." 2.40 10. MV JOURNALISTS AT NEWSCONFERENCE 2.49 11. (SOUNDBITE) (English) TSVANGERAI SAYING "I would like to first of all express our big disappointment at the machinations of this government to try to have a predetermined outcome. We are on the third day of voting where there is no voting taking place; where in Harare and Chitungwiza, mountains of potential voters have been disenfranchised" 3.30 (W5) BULAWAYO, ZIMBABWE (MARCH 11, 2002) (REUTERS) 12. (SOUNDBITE) (English) UNIDENTIFIED VOTING YOUTH IN THE STREETS SAYING "I think the MDC is going to win. I think it has the majority support here." 3.34 13. (SOUNDBITE) (English) UNIDENTIFIED VOTER AND YOUTH IN STREETS SAYING "I think Mugabe is going to win. Zanu PF is going to win because Mugabe is immortal" 3.38 14. SLV EXTERIOR MDC OFFICE 3.41 15. (SOUNDBITE) (English) MDC SPOKESMAN DAVID COLTART SAYING "The Secretary General of the MDC, Welshman Ncube, was detained by police at a police road block this morning whilst travelling from Bullawayo to the country. We don't know what the charges are. We only know that he is being held at the police station in Plumtree at present." 4.07 HARARE, ZIMBABWE (RECENT - EARLY MARCH 2002) (REUTERS) 16. MV WELSHMAN NCUBE (RIGHT) SITTING NEXT TO TSVANGERAI 4.11 Initials Script is copyright Reuters Limited. All rights reserved
- Embargoed: 27th March 2002 12:00
- Keywords:
- Location: HARARE AND BULAWAYO, ZIMBABWE
- Country: Zimbabwe
- Reuters ID: LVA8U59WXOPHG879SZ87B85R88KT
- Story Text: Zimbabwe's opposition, which has alleged government
cheating, has said it is seeking a court order to extend
voting in the country's presidential election for a second
extra day.
Zimbabwe's opposition Movement for Democratic Change
(MDC) lodged a new petition on Monday (March 11, 2002) after
President Robert Mugabe's government blocked voting in Harare
for several hours in the morning and refused to open polls
outside the capital.
The Zimbabwe High Court had already granted a request to
extend voting into an unscheduled third day on Monday after
the opposition said Mugabe delayed polling over the weekend to
disenfranchise his opponents.
The MDC said it was filing for contempt of court because
the polling stations had not opened on time.
Thousands of voters waited at the gates for at least 5
hours after they were due to open in the capital Harare.
The U.S. embassy in Harare said four American diplomats,
two of them electoral observers, were detained at a police
roadblock northwest of the capital on Monday in what it
described as a clear violation of basic diplomatic
conventions.
The government said the election would be extended only in
Harare and the nearby Chitungwiza settlement, contrary to the
court order that voting should continue throughout the
country.
A preliminary report from European Union envoys in
Zimbabwe suggested on Monday that the presidential election
there has not been free and fair.
However a monitor from the South African Business Observer
mission, Tom Boya, gave his qualified support to the polling
saying voting in Harare had appeared to him to have been free
and fair ahead of the counting.
"I think so far, let me say, so far, the counting has not
taken place, the election has been free and fair," Boya said.
Opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai said Mugabe was trying
to steal the election and that multitudes of potential voters
were being disenfranchised.
He also praised voters who had braved the hours of
waiting and the violence to exercise their right to vote.
"Together we have travelled a very difficult road to
achieve democratic change. Your resilience to reclaim your
rights as expressed by your overwhelming turnout has shaken
the corridors of power," Tsvangerai said.
He also says Mugabe is systematically using violence and
cheating to cling on to power in the once prosperous nation,
which faces an economic and political collapse that would
contaminate neighbouring countries including regional giant
South Africa.
"I would like to first of all express our big
disappointment at the machinations of this government to try
to have a predetermined outcome. We are on the third day of
voting where there is no voting taking place; where in Harare
and Chitungwiza, mountains of potential voters have been
disenfranchised," Tsvangerai said.
Voters in Bullawayo were divided on who was going to win
with some saying the MDC leader would get the majority of
votes whilst others believe that Mugabe cannot be unseated.
"I think the MDC is going to win. I think it has the
majority support here," said a Tsvangerai supporter.
"I think Mugabe is going to win. Zanu PF is going to win
because Mugabe is immortal," said a Mugabe supporter.
Tsvangirai poses the toughest challenge of Mugabe's
22-year-rule. He said one of his top lieutenants, MDC
Secretary-General Welshman Ncube, had been arrested in
southern Zimbabwe.
Other MDC officials said details of the arrest were
sketchy but that he had been arrested near the Botswana border
and that it may have been connected with treason charges
against Ncube and another MDC official.
"The Secretary General of the MDC, Welshman Ncube, was
detained by police at a police road block this morning whilst
travelling from Bullawayo to the country. We don't know what
the charges are. We only know that he is being held at the
police station in Plumtree at present," said MDC spokesman in
Bullawayo David Coltart.
Both have have denied the accusation that they plotted to
assassinate Mugabe.
Tsvangerai has now urged restraint on his followers and
seemed to be preparing them for a stolen result.
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