Zimbabweans Urged To Boycott Run-Off Election Or Spoil Ballots
Zimbabwean civil society organizations urged voters to boycott the poll unless doing so might lead to violence against them, in which c
Zimbabwe was braced for a presidential run-off election Friday that many Zimbabweans and much of the outside world said would lack legitimacy given the withdrawal from the contest by opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai due to widespread and deadly political violence and government manipulation of the electoral process. But the ruling ZANU-PF party and the government of President Robert Mugabe were pushing ahead with theballot in which Mr. Mugabe will be in effect the only candidate - although the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission has said Tsvangirai's formal notification of his withdrawal, filed on Wednesday, came to late to have legal effect. Zimbabwean civil society organizations todayissued a collective statement urged voters not to go out to the polls unless their failure to do so might lead to violence against them, in which case the electorate was urged to spoil theballot or leave it blank. An increasing number of Africanleaders were breaking silence on Zimbabwe, denouncing the political violence that has raged since the March 29 first round of elections, and urging that the run-off election be postponed. Former South African President Nelson Mandela weighed inon Wednesday with a statement deploring the "failure of leadership in Zimbabwe," anindirect criticism of President Mugabe whom Mr. Mandela had earlier declined totake to task. Mr. Mandela, visiting London for celebrationsof his 90birthday, made those comments at a dinner attended by Prime Minister Gordon Grown and former U.S. President Bill Clinton. The Zimbabwean government on Thursday dismissed Mandela'scomments. Information Minister Sikhanyso Ndlovu said Mandela had bowed to Western pressure. President Mugabe said in a final campaign rally Thursday in Chitungwiza, not far south of Harare, that he is ready to talk to the MDC, but only after Friday'srun-off. Mr. Mugabe shrugged off a resolution by the Southern African Development Community troika on politics and defense which urged Harareto postpone the election. U.S. Assistant Secretary of State for Africa Jendayi Frazer said any victory claimed by Mr. Mugabe would be "illegitimate" as would any government arising from the run-off. Executive Director Tomaz Salamao of the Southern African Development Community told reporter Blessing Zulu of VOA's Studio 7 for Zimbabwe that SADC's Zimbabwetroika wants the run-off vote to be postponed until the situation in the country stabilizes. Tsvangirai welcomed the resolution by theSADC troika. Still under Dutch protection at the Embassy of the Netherlands in Harare, he said ZANU-PF militia raided his rural homestead in Buhera, Manicaland province, destroying homes and forcing villagers to join ZANU-PF. Tsvangirai told reporter Blessing Zulu that the SADC's statement was historic. Elsewhere, the Harare high court granted bail to Secretary General Tendai Biti of theMDC formation led by Tsvangirai, held since June12 on treason and other charges, and civil society leaders urged Zimbabweans to shun the ballot, as Irwin Chifera reported from Harare.