Zimbabwe opposition MP, 100 supporters arrested

Zimbabwe opposition MP, 100 supporters arrested

• Mugabe puts military in centre of election

• Zim opposition demands voters' roll review

• MDC, Zanu (Ndonga) 'not fooled' by TV, radio coverage

• MDC to make poll decision in January

• MDC cries foul as constituencies erased

• MDC: 'Delimitation an exercise in deception'

• Delimitation commission erases MDC constituencies

• Mugabe swears in delimitation commission

• Zimbabwe voters' roll 'inflated by a million'

• Mugabe bars Western observers from polls

• Tsvangirai warns of Zimbabwe 'inferno'

• Call off boycott, Mogae urges MDC

• Two Zanu PF MPs lose seats

• Sparks fly over voters' roll tampering

• Zanu PF tests popularity with membership cards

• Majority Zimbabweans want MDC to stand

• Zimbabwe bars election observers

• Sadc must show its teeth, says Tsvangirai

• Mugabe retains control over elections

• Police swoop on MDC offices

• Zanu PF takes Seke after MDC boycott

• Britain, SA pressure Mugabe over reforms

• MDC threatens poll boycott, withdraws Harare councillors

• Electoral reforms to be tested in by-election

• Nigeria angrily denies funding MDC

• Zim claims Nigeria funding opposition

• 'Mugabe's compliance the litmus test for SADC protocol on democratic polls'

By Staff Reporter

ZIMBABWE'S opposition Movement for Democratic Change party on Sunday confirmed the arrest of Makokoba MP Thokozani Khupe and over 100 party supporters after police raided a restaurant that she owns in the country's second largest city of Bulawayo.

Also arrested with the MP are two councilors Peter Nyathi of Ward 10 and Amen Mpofu of Ward 2 in the same constituency.

The MDC said Khupe was having a "strategic meeting" when the riot squad stormed the building.

Khupe and the party activists are facing charges under Zimbabwe's tough public order and security laws for holding an "illegal meeting".

"Three police details arrived at the private planning meeting and demanded to attend. Khuphe allowed them. The meeting proceeded but after about 30 minutes riot police in full gear arrived at the meeting and told everyone that they were under arrest. They were all loaded in police vehicles and taken to Bulawayo Central police Station," the MDC spokesman Paul Themba Nyathi said in a statemenbt released Sunday.

Nyathi said the arrests were evidence that Zanu PF was determined to ignore regional demands for a free and fair election when Zimbabweans vote in parliamentary polls in March.

"The political playing field remains very flawed," Nyathi said. "We would like to bring it to the attention of the SADC leaders that in many instances the situation is deteriorating. The police continue to interfere with the MDC’s political meetings and thus prevent fair campaigning. They also continue to act in complicity with the Zanu PF officials, neglecting their role of fairness and neutrality.

" The selective application of the law is deepening. All these factors will have a large bearing in the decision of the MDC National Council on whether to participate or not. We continue to implore the regime and the SADC leaders to continue to push for a path that will afford the people of Zimbabwe a free and fair election to bring about a lasting solution to the crisis."
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