Washington Post Foreign Service
Saturday, April 2, 2005; Page A15
HARARE, Zimbabwe, April 1 -- The party of President Robert Mugabe tightened its 25-year grip on power Friday, gaining control of at least two-thirds of the country's parliament after elections that his political opponents, human rights groups and many Western governments denounced as rigged and a betrayal of the national will.
A day after a nationwide vote, results that trickled in throughout Friday showed Mugabe's Zimbabwe African National Union-Patriotic Front (ZANU-PF) with 74 seats compared with 40 for the opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC). Before Thursday's election, the opposition controlled 51 seats. In overall votes cast, ZANU-PF received 59 percent to 40 percent for MDC. One seat went to an independent candidate, Jonathan Moyo, the information minister who was fired by Mugabe in February after years in which he oversaw a sweeping crackdown on the nation's independent journalists.
The results from 14 more districts were to be announced Saturday morning, officials said. But with Mugabe appointing 30 seats in addition to the 120 contested on Thursday, it was clear his party would control at least two-thirds of parliament, the margin required for ZANU-PF to be able to rewrite the constitution to further entrench its power.
After an initial surge of opposition victories in its urban strongholds, a succession of rural precincts reported overwhelming victories for Mugabe's party, even in places where journalists and other independent observers reported few voters and little enthusiasm for the ruling party.
"There's just absolute brazen rigging going on," said David Coltart, an opposition member of parliament from Bulawayo, Zimbabwe's second-largest city. "I don't expect us to win a single rural seat."
Observers from neighboring countries said in preliminary remarks that the election was open and transparent, but the U.S. State Department called it "seriously tainted."
"Given everything that's gone on during [the] whole election process, including some of the reports we're getting now, it would be very hard to say that these are free and fair," said Richard A. Boucher, the department's spokesman.
Alleged examples of rigging came in myriad forms, from the names of deceased people on voter rolls to extreme gerrymandering of districts to the intentional miscounting of ballots in rural areas beyond the reach of independent monitors. The supposedly indelible purple ink painted on the pinkies of voters to prevent them from casting multiple ballots was easily washed off.
In Manyame district, the election commission announced that 14,812 people voted and that the ruling party's candidate received 15,448 votes.
Election results also showed that about 10 percent of voters nationwide were turned away at the polls, fueling suspicion that some opposition supporters were purged from voter rolls.
As the ruling party's victory became apparent, attention turned increasingly to whether opposition leaders would call for demonstrations to protest results.
In a morning news conference, the opposition leader, Morgan Tsvangirai, called on Zimbabweans to "defend their vote."
"We do not accept that this represents the national sentiment," he said of the election. "This government has fraudulently, once again, denied the people."
Amid claims of rigging by the opposition party, news reports today from the Zimbabwe capital city of Harare, say current President Robert Mugabe has again clinched a party victory in this round of national elections.

This national election bears similarity to the 2000 election when allegations that Mugabe's dominant political party, the Zimbabwe African National Union - Patriotic Front (Zanu-PF), used its position in power to steal the election were widespread. Morgan Tsvangirai, leader of the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC), who after that election appealed to the nation's courts for justice, appears ready this time to take the argument to the street, possibly sparking violent protests and unrest. The leader urged, "Zimbabweans must defend their right to vote and they must defend their vote."

Past MDC street protests were met violently by Mugabe's regime, and the court system in Zimbabwe is seen as largely supportive of the Zanu-PF agenda.

The Zanu-PF took 55 of the 120 seats in the Zimbabwe Parliament. The MDC took 34 seats. The MDC had received strong support during pre-election rallies and had hoped to gain enough new seats to gain a legislative majority in the parliament. Mugabe, now 81, will appoint another 30 seats, which will ensure his party a majority.

Tsvangirai cites the area of Manyame located near the capital as an example of election rigging. Mugabe's nephew, Patrick Zhawao, the ruling party candidate was declared winner. On Thursday night election officials reported 14,812 votes were counted. Then early Friday morning, the total vote count was reported at 24,000, with Zhawao getting more than 15,000 of the vote.

The over-night voting count inconsistency led him to charge, "The government has fraudulently, once again, betrayed the people," he told reporters at a news briefing.