Mugabe foes claim win amid slow tally

NF Reporter · 04-01-2008, 04:06 AM

AP - Zimbabwe's opposition claimed victory Monday in the elections, while a slow trickle in official results raised fears that supporters of longtime President Robert Mugabe were rigging the count.

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waltky · 04-22-2008, 02:07 AM

Mugabe fixin' the election...

Mugabe 'trying to steal election'
April 22, 2008 - BRITAIN overnight accused Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe of trying to steal the country's election and of unleashing a campaign of violence against Zimbabweans who had voted against him.

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Foreign Secretary David Miliband urged African leaders to do more to help resolve the crisis in Zimbabwe following last month's disputed election, saying democratic legitimacy throughout the continent was at stake. "The constitutional crisis in Zimbabwe continues as President Mugabe persists in his ambition to steal the election," Mr Miliband told parliament. It was Britain's most outspoken criticism since the March 29 poll.

Zimbabwe announced a delay yesterday in the partial recount of the votes, extending a deadlock in which the opposition said 10 of its members have been killed and hundreds arrested. The recount could overturn the results of the parliamentary election, which showed Mr Mugabe's ZANU-PF losing its majority to the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) for the first time.

Results of the parallel presidential election have not been released, but MDC leader Morgan Tsvangirai said he has won. "President Mugabe and his ZANU-PF party have unleashed a campaign of violence against those ordinary Zimbabweans, 60 per cent of them, who in spite of everything voted against him," Mr Miliband said. No one could have any faith in the partial recount of the votes, he said, adding that the count was proceeding at a "ludicrously slow rate".

"This only serves to fuel suspicion that President Mugabe is seeking to reverse the results that have been published ... If that is the case, then what we are witnessing is a charade of democracy," he said.

More Mugabe 'trying to steal election' | NEWS.com.au

waltky · 05-16-2008, 03:14 AM

Mammoth bank note for mammoth inflation...

Zimbabwe's half-a-billion dollar note
May 15, 2008 : ZIMBABWE has introduced a new half-a-billion dollar bank note in a bid to tackle cash shortages fed by rampant inflation, the central bank said today.

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"Introducing the new 500,000,000 bearer cheque for your convenience," read a Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe full-page advert in the state daily, The Herald, displaying specimens of the new note. The note, comes into circulation 10 days after the introduction of a quarter-of-a-billion one early this month.

This is the fourth set of high denomination notes to be issued this year, the first being in January when a 10 million dollar note was put into circulation. The next was on April 2 when a 50 million dollar note came into being before the 100 and 250 million dollar notes were introduced on May 2.

The southern African nation, currently gripped by a post-election crisis, has been ravaged by hyperinflation which reached 165,000 per cent in February. No latest inflation figures have been released since then. The country's chronic economic crisis has condemned millions to grinding poverty with at least 80 per cent of the population living below the poverty threshold amid mass shortages of basic goods in shops.

Zimbabwe's half-a-billion dollar note | NEWS.com.au

waltky · 06-13-2008, 12:27 AM

Robbin' from the poor, givin' to the corrupt...

Zimbabwean officials seize US food aid
June 12, 2008 - Children's relief ordered given to Mugabe backers

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Zimbabwean authorities confiscated a truck loaded with 20 tons of American food aid for poor schoolchildren and ordered that the wheat and pinto beans aboard be handed out to supporters of President Robert Mugabe at a political rally instead, the American ambassador said yesterday. "This government will stop at nothing, even starving the most defenseless people in the country - young children - to realize their political ambitions," said the ambassador, James D. McGee, in an interview.

The government ordered all humanitarian aid groups to suspend their operations last week, charging that some of them were giving out food as bribes to win votes for the opposition leader, Morgan Tsvangirai, in a June 27 presidential runoff against Mugabe. But political analysts, aid workers and human rights groups contend that it is, in fact, Zimbabwe's governing party that has ruthlessly used food to reward supporters and punish opponents in a country where agricultural production has collapsed over the past decade and millions of people would go hungry each year without emergency assistance.

The seizure of the truck laden with food aid is a case in point, McGee said. It occurred Friday in an area called Bambazonke near the town of Mutare in eastern Zimbabwe. The truck was hired by one of three nongovernmental organizations - CARE, Catholic Relief Services, and World Vision - that form a consortium and contract with the US Agency for International Development to distribute food aid in Zimbabwe. Its cargo of wheat, beans, and vegetable oil was intended for 26 primary schools, American officials said, part of a program that provides hungry children with one solid meal a day.

Misheck Kagurabadza, a former mayor of Mutare and a newly elected member of Parliament from Manicaland Province, said the cutoff of food from aid groups was devastating. The government has a monopoly on buying corn, Zimbabwe's main staple food, from farmers and will sell it only to those who hold ZANU-PF party cards, he contends. "The relief agencies stopped distribution of food a few days ago," said Kagurabadza, one of many opposition leaders who have gone into hiding to avoid a sweeping crackdown by ZANU-PF, the governing party. "I don't know how we'll survive until the next harvest."

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waltky · 07-29-2008, 09:37 PM

No progress in Zimbabwe talks...

Major parties walk away from talks in Zimbabwe
Tuesday 29th July, 2008 - In Zimbabwe the governing Zanu-PF and the MDC parties have stopped talking.

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While the two sides had been discussing forming government together, it is believed President Robert Mugabe insulted Morgan Tsvangarai by suggesting he become a third vice-president. Already there are two vice presidents who are both members of ZANU-PF.

The two parties have been meeting since Thursday with the help of President Mbeki of South Africa, who was the chief intermediary in the talks. It is believed Mr Tsvangirai pulled out of the talks without informing Mr Mbeki.

Major parties walk away from talks in Zimbabwe

waltky · 10-23-2008, 02:56 AM

Fearless W gonna whup some more sanctions on Mugabe...

US renews threat of sanctions against Zimbabwe
21 Oct 2008, WASHINGTON: The US State Department on Monday renewed threats of further sanctions against President Robert Mugabe's Zimbabwe if he does not respect a power-sharing deal with his rival Morgan Tsvangirai.

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The warning came as regional efforts to resolve Zimbabwe's political crisis ground to a halt Monday, as Tsvangirai, the main opposition leader, refused to attend a southern African summit in Swaziland until he is granted a passport. "We understand that Morgan Tsvangirai's passport has not yet been returned to him, but I don't believe that we're playing any specific role in dealing with that issue," State Department deputy spokesman Robert Wood told reporters.

"But let me just make a general point, that, you know, should Mugabe renege on this power-sharing agreement, the United States, you know, is prepared to impose additional sanctions," he said. He was referring to the agreement struck September 15. Wood declined to discuss what sanctions might be considered. But US officials said they could involve imposing new travel restrictions on people close to Mugabe who have not already been affected. "We can broaden the sanctions, not only on the regime itself but on the associates of the regime," a State Department official said on the condition of anonymity.

During a visit to Japan last Friday, Jendayi Frazer, the top US diplomat for Africa, said that she was not optimistic that Mugabe and Tsvangirai would break a deadlock in talks. "If it doesn't work then we are going to continue the pressure that we've put on the government. We will look at new sanctions against President Mugabe and his regime," Frazer told a group of reporters in Tokyo. Following the failed summit in Swaziland, talks have been postponed by another seven days and moved back to Harare on October 27.

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