Zimbabwe Ruling Party Seen Maintaining Control Of Most Rural Districts
The MDC faction led by Morgan Tsvangirai said that although balloting was flawed in its view by rigging and intimidation, it was please
With election results trickling in from 59 rural districts across Zimbabwe, indications were that the ruling ZANU-PF party had retained its dominant position outside the cities despite inroads by the opposition in a few areas. ZANU-PF also reclaimed the mayor’s office in Kadoma, Mashonaland West, the only higher office up for grabs. Observers said the two factions of the opposition Movement for Democratic Change undermined each other by fielding head-to-head candidates in 40 wards, thereby in effect handing victories to the ruling party. Both MDC factions accused ZANU-PF of rigging ballots and buying votes as well as engaging in voter intimidation. S Rural district council elections and Kadoma’s mayoral election were characterized by very low voter turnout, according to the Zimbabwe Election Support Network, which said as few as 25 voters turned out to cast ballots in some rural wards. Despite the extremely low turnout, the opposition made inroads by claiming some rural wards that the ruling party had traditionally dominated. Though the elections were generally peaceful, the independent election-monitoring group cited one incident in Kadoma where the home of the MDC candidate for mayor, Jonas Ndenda, was stoned by alleged supporters of the ruling party. Despite scattered opposition gains, analysts saw the elections as a non-event given that the ruling party appeared to have won the lion’s share of rural seats as expected. Such an outcome was predicted by many in view of what observers called an uneven playing field and reported intimidation of voters and opposition candidates.