Johannesburg - Further damning evidence of the undemocratic
nature of last week's election in Zimbabwe that returned longtime
leader Robert Mugabe as president emerged Saturday in the form of
video footage of blatant vote-rigging.
In the footage produced secretly by a prison guard in Zimbabwe for
Guardian Films and shown by the BBC, prison officers are shown being
intimidated into voting for Mugabe by their superior officers.
The superior officers watch over the junior officers as they cast
their votes in a postal ballot to ensure they mark an X against
Mugabe and not opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) leader
Morgan Tsvangirai.
Tsvangirai's name remained on the ballot paper, after he withdrew
from the run-off election at the eleventh hour, citing fears for the
safety of his supporters.
The officer who filmed the scenes said he felt compelled to expose
the climate of fear that gripped Zimbabwe in the run-up to the June
27 vote after his uncle, an opposition activist, was murdered.
Mugabe, 84, was inaugurated as president for another five years on
June 29, two days after an election that three African observer
missions said failed to meet standards for democratic elections.
The MDC, the West and a handful of African states, including
Botswana and Nigeria, have denounced the vote as illegitimate.
But an African Union heads of state summit in Egypt earlier this
week stopped short of discrediting the vote, instead calling on
Mugabe to form a government of national unity with Tsvangirai.
Mugabe has made MDC recognition of his election victory a
precondition for talks.
The MDC has said it wants the first-round presidential elections
in March to be the starting point for the talks. Tsvangirai defeated
Mugabe in that election but failed to take an outright majority.
The MDC's March victory triggered a violent campaign of
retribution against its supporters by state-backed youth militia.
Over 90 people have been killed so far in these attacks.
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