Zimbabwe: Tsvangirai’s MDC Party Supporters Attacked

By Staff Writer

Harare--Followers of Zimbabwe’s opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) party say they have been attacked by supporters of President Robert Mugabe, a day after official results of the presidential polls were released.theZimbabwe Electoral Commission (Zec)

Results from the Wednesday’s election gave Mugabea 61% win of the total votes cast, against Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai’s 34%. Results from the Parliamentary election also resounded with a landslide win of 158 seats for ZANU-PF against 49 only for MDC.

 MDC has contested the results, saying the polls were fraudulent. Its leader Morgan Tsvangirai has said he will pursue legal actions against the results.

Some eleven people in the capital, Harare and 20 others from Mashonaland central province say they were attacked over the weekend by known ZANU-PF supporters after the results were announced.

The victims were reportedly attacked by the ZANU-PF members who went door-o-door ordering MDC supporters and their families to pack their bags and leave. Some of the victims attacked in a township in the capital have sought refuge at MDC party headquarters.

An MDC spokesman Douglas Mwonzora said the attacks were well planned, claims which his counterpart from ZANU-PF Psychology Maziwisa has denied his party supporters were committing.

MDC has warned that the situation could spin out of control, bearing its irate supporters if reports of attacks continued. The party has appealed to the Southern African bloc, SADC, to intervene in the matter.

Tsvangirai, 61, has said they would no longer work with Mr Mugabe and would boycott government institutions, adding that they will call for a campaign of civil disobedience to isolate Zanu-PF.

Both Mugabe and Tsvangirai have shared a troubled coalition government since 2009 under a power-sharing deal that ended violent clashes, following bungled elections.Mr Tsvangirai had won most votes in the first round of the 2008 poll, but pulled out of the run-off with Mr Mugabe because of attacks on his supporters, which left about 200 dead.

Mugabe, 89, heads for a seventh term in office since the country gained independence from the UK in 1980.

African Union poll observers initially reported that the election was “free and credible”, even though there had been some "incidents that could have been avoided", The AU's mission chief OlusegunObasanjo said and asked Zimbabwe's election authorities to investigate claims that voters had been turned away from polling stations.