Mugabe's supporters walk out of debate

Mugabe's supporters walk out of debate

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By Staff Reporter

Harare - Supporters of President Robert Mugabe's 25-year rule locked horns Tuesday with opposition members in the only public campaign debate before March 31 parliamentary elections.

The stormy session, marked by catcalls and slow hand claps, ended with a walkout by members of Mugabe's Zanu-PF party. Hundreds of opposition Movement for Democratic Change loyalists attended, some of them wearing party T-shirts.

University lecturer Brian Raftopoulos, who moderated the debate convened by an organisation of city taxpayers, pleaded repeatedly for "a culture of tolerance."

The election campaign has highlighted Zimbabwe's protracted economic and political crisis, as well as accusations that poor governance under Mugabe has driven this once-prosperous African nation to poverty. For most of Tuesday, much of downtown Harare was without water, due to another of the frequent unexplained shutdowns.

Opposition finance spokesperson Tendai Biti said Zimbabwe faced "demise as a nation state, like Somalia," if authorities failed to supply water, fix roads and collect trash.

"We can't live without water," said Biti, one of 57 opposition lawmakers. "You can't divorce the crisis facing the state with the crisis in local government."

Ruling party members blamed opposition-controlled local councils for neglecting services.

Zanu-PF won 62 parliament seats the last parliamentary election in 2000, after which Mugabe nominated 30 more legislators under a 1990 electoral law for a wide majority. The opposition and international observers disputed the election results, as well as the results of the 2002 poll that re-elected Mugabe. His current term runs to mid-2008, when he would be 84.

Zimbabwean opposition leaders and several international and national human rights groups have said the March 31 elections were also unlikely to be free and fair, because of violence and intimidation blamed on Mugabe's increasingly isolated and autocratic regime.

The debate Tuesday underlined the failure of government and opposition members to discuss policy, after six years of political and economic crisis.

Police gave permission for the debate and did not attend in uniform, but many plainclothes agents were believed to be mingling with the audience. - Sapa-AP
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