Tsvangirai's MDC faction wins Budiriro election

Tsvangirai's MDC faction wins Budiriro election

• Mutambara, 3 MPs arrested in Budiriro

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• Mutambara sees resolution of MDC dispute

• 'He is a rare talent, where has he been?'

• Coltart on violence of the fist, tongue and heart

• Mutambara says exiles must vote

• MDC leaders in international diplomatic offensive

• INTERVIEW: Coltart speaks on MDC split

• Tsvangirai vows to confront Mugabe

• Coltart: Tsvangirai failed to deal with violence

By Staff Reporter

ZIMBABWE'S main opposition party retained its parliamentary seat in a key by-election President Robert Mugabe's ruling party had hoped would show it regaining lost ground in urban centres.

State radio reported on Sunday that Emmanuel Chisvuvure, the candidate of the Morgan Tsvangirai-led faction of the divided opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) polled 7 949 votes on Saturday against 3 961 for Jeremiah Bvirindi of Mugabe's ruling Zanu-PF party while Gabriel Chaibva of the other MDC camp only managed 504.

Mugabe had vowed at a rally in the Budiriro district on Thursday to defeat the MDC, which accuses his government of landing the country into a deepening economic crisis through 26 years of post-independence mismanagement.

Inflation has rocketed to over 1 000%, the highest rate in the world, and Zimbabweans also have to contend with high unemployment, persistent shortages of food, fuel and other key commodities and frequent water and electricity cuts.

Formed in 1999, the MDC came close to unseating Mugabe's Zanu-PF in 2000 parliamentary elections on a wave of public anger over the crisis, but the ruling party has won major polls since then amid charges of rigging from the opposition backed by several Western countries.

Mugabe denies the rigging charges and dismisses the opposition as a puppet of former colonial ruler Britain and other Western states angered by his controversial seizure of white-owned commercial farms for blacks.

Zimbabwe's security forces have intensified a crackdown on Mugabe's critics in recent weeks, fearing protests threatened by the MDC and its ally the Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions.

On Saturday the ZCTU said it would lead a national strike at an unspecified date this later year for higher wages as inflation ravages disposable incomes for most Zimbabwe workers.

Last week the police barred street marches planned to mark last year's official destruction of urban slums, fearing the anniversary could provide another flashpoint for violence.

But about 500 people marched peacefully on Saturday in Zimbabwe's second city of Bulawayo after winning a court ruling permitting the march, church leaders said.

On Friday police detained senior opposition politicians from the renegade MDC faction during a road campaign in Budiriro, and deported South Africa's most powerful union boss as he headed to Harare for a ZCTU conference - Reuters
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