MDC mulls senate elections boycott

MDC mulls senate elections boycott

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By Cris Chinaka

ZIMBABWE'S opposition said on Tuesday it may boycott elections for an upper house of parliament later this year, accusing President Robert Mugabe's party of rigging previous elections.

The southern African country is struggling with a severe political and economic crisis that government critics blame on Mugabe's controversial policies, including his seizures of white-owned farms for redistribution to blacks and his use of tough media and security laws against opponents.

"No decision has been made on whether we will participate or whether we will not take part," Paul Themba-Nyathi, spokesman for the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC), told Reuters.

"The MDC is still consulting on the issue because there are some people in the party who feel that we are legitimising the whole rigging process by participating in these elections."
"Then there are also others who feel that if we boycott the elections we are surrendering the entire political space to ZANU-PF ... and that we have to keep fighting," he added.

The MDC accuses Mugabe's ruling ZANU-PF party of rigging the last three major parliamentary and presidential polls.

It agonised over whether to boycott parliamentary elections on March 31, eventually deciding to field candidates only to receive a severe drubbing from ZANU-PF, which won a two-thirds majority, enabling it to change the constitution.
The MDC and Western governments said the polls were unfair.

William Bango, a spokesman for MDC leader Morgan Tsvangirai, said the opposition chief was opposed to the introduction of a Senate through piecemeal constitutional changes.

"Mr Tsvangirai believes that this is not a priority given that millions of people are facing unprecedented economic hardships of general lack of food, lack of fuel, lack of jobs and international isolation," Bango said.

Mugabe, on a visit to Cuba, told Zimbabwean students that elections for the Senate -- which the government says will improve the quality of legislation passed in the country -- would be held before the end of the year.

Mugabe, 81 and in power since independence from Britain in 1980, denies charges by his critics, including the European Union and Washington, that his ZANU-PF party rigged the 2002 presidential poll and parliamentary elections in 2000 and 2005.

On Monday, Mugabe confirmed that he had signed into law controversial constitutional changes effectively nationalising the formerly white-owned farms and empowering the state to impose travel sanctions on "traitors".

The MDC says the latest changes to the constitution -- which Mugabe has altered 17 times since 1980 -- are proof that he has become a classic dictator.
Mugabe says his opponents have conspired with foreigners to sabotage Zimbabwe's economy over his land seizures, which he argues were necessary to correct colonial imbalances that left minority whites in control of the bulk of the prime farmland.

Zimbabwe is struggling with severe shortages of food, fuel and foreign currency for imports after a six-year recession in which the economy has shrunk by over 30 percent - Reuters
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