MDC polling agents abducted in Gwanda by-election

By Lance Guma
27 June 2008

Reports emanating from Gwanda say 2 MDC polling agents were abducted by Zanu PF militants during the parliamentary by-election held in the constituency Friday. According to our correspondent Lionel Saungweme, the whereabouts of the 2 are still unknown with party officials making frantic efforts to locate them. Meanwhile polling stations in Bulawayo resembled deserted rural police stations as residents heeded a call by the opposition to boycott the sham election. Defiant MDC supporters put red cloths on posters and trees in the city (red being the MDC colour).

The MDC were also busy distributing fliers urging their supporters to boycott the election. However people in the Mpopoma, Gwanda and Redcliff areas, that have parliamentary by-elections, were urged to vote. Provisional estimates put the number of people who voted in Mpopoma at 3000. Lennox Mhlanga from the Bulawayo Agenda pressure group said the entire Matabeleland and Midlands provinces witnessed a low voter turnout. He pointed to the Mzingwane area in Matabeleland as one of the areas where a significant number of voters were frog-marched to the polls.

Zanu PF youths were reported to be forcing people at Egodini bus terminus in central Bulawayo to go and vote. Foreign currency dealers near the Tredgold Magistrates court were chased away as the rampaging youths demanded to see whether they had the indelible voting ink on their fingers. Commuter bus operators were forced to put posters of Mugabe on their windows or risk having their vehicles trashed. In Nkayi the home of an MDC activist was burnt down on Thursday in the Qhubuthando area. The attack was carried by Zanu PF thugs.

Meanwhile political commentators have slammed Mugabe’s ‘one-man election’ as a sham. Pedzisai Ruhanya from the Crisis in Zimbabwe Coalition said it was clear Mugabe wanted to use the ‘bogus’ election as a tool to negotiate a government of national unity that brings in the MDC as a junior partner. Former MDC Zengeza MP Tafadzwa Musekiwa said talk of Mugabe eyeing a government of national unity was naïve, given his track record. He described Mugabe as insincere and that as long as his inner circle had millions of US dollars in their bank accounts they could never be bothered by what other countries or individuals thought of their rule.