MP arrested during Zimbabwe elections

MP arrested during Zimbabwe elections

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By Staff Reporter

ZIMBABWEAN police have arrested and detained an opposition legislator and seven party supporters, accusing them of breaching electoral laws during local council polls, a lawyer said on Sunday.

"Police are holding Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) member of parliament Job Sikhala and seven party supporters including a 17-year-old boy at a police station in Chitungwiza (outside Harare)," said lawyer Otto Saki from Zimbabwe's Lawyers for Human Rights.

"They were arrested last (Saturday) night as polling stations were winding up after local council elections. The police accused them of campaigning in close proximity to a polling station."

The lawyer said he tried in vain to secure the teenager's release.

Zimbabwe's electoral rules forbid campaigning or wearing political party regalia within a 100m radius of a polling station.

"The claim that they were campaigning is not true because they were sitting in a truck parked well beyond the stipulated distance and it was after the elections," the lawyer said.

Voters cast their ballots on Saturday in low-key polls to elect councillors in five wards across the country.

The MDC, once seen as the crisis-hit southern African country's first real opposition against long-time leader Robert Mugabe's government, is facing a split after a leadership wrangle following polls held in November - Sapa-AFP
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