MDC faces crucial by-election as Mutasa dies

MDC faces crucial by-election as Mutasa dies

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• MDC MPs brutalised

By Agencies

ZIMBABWE'S embattled political opposition faces a crucial by-election for one of three parliamentary seats needed by the government to secure the passage of amendments to the Constitution.

The country's largest opposition party, the Movement for Democratic Change, has seen its representation in the 150-seat Parliament whittled down over the last four years to 52 members from 57 in a series of by-elections marred by violence and allegations of vote rigging.

Now one of those 52 seats is up for grabs, vacated by the death on Saturday of an MDC lawmaker Bennie Tumbare-Mutasa, and a win for President Robert Mugabe's Zanu-PF party would put it within striking distance of the two-thirds majority it needs to pass amendments to the Constitution.

Zimbabwe has been racked by political and economic troubles since February 2000, when Mugabe was resoundingly defeated in a referendum on a new Constitution that would have entrenched his rule indefinitely.

A spokesperson for the MDC, headed by veteran union leader Morgan Tsvangirai, said on Sunday he hoped diplomatic pressure by other African nations would ensure a fair contest when voters go to the polls in Seke, on the southern outskirts of Harare. Under Zimbabwean law a by-election must be held in the next 90 days.

"We are in the business of politics because of our undying optimism," said party spokesperson Paul Themba-Nyathi. "We are confident that with the amount of pressure that is being exerted there are possibilities Seke might be held by us."

The only other opposition party in Zimbabwe, Zanu-Ndonga, holds a single seat in Parliament. The other 97 lawmakers belong to Mugabe's Zanu-PF party -- 30 of whom were nominated for the job, not elected, by the 80-year-old authoritarian leader under a constitutional amendment passed in 1990.

Themba-Nyathi said his party was counting on the 14-nation South African Development Community to keep the crucial by-election fair.

Heads of state from the regional organisation are scheduled to meet soon in Mauritius to discuss electoral standards and principles, he said.

The seat in Seke became vacant with the death on Saturday from undisclosed natural causes of MDC lawmaker Bennie Tumbare-Mutasa, who won it in Zimbabwe's last general election in June 2000.

In that election the MDC claimed it was cheated of victory in half of the races for seats won by Mugabe's Zanu-PF.

Mugabe has been in power since the country won independence in 1980.

Under his leadership, the government sent ex-guerillas to seize 5 000 white-owned farms under a land reform programme critics say threw the economy into turmoil. - Sapa-AP
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