Zimbabwe Opposition Protests Outcome Of Polls Criticised By Observers

“We collated the results from our agents at all polling stations and what they reflected is nothing else except victory for MDC Alliance presidential candidate Nelson Chamisa, and we demand that they make those V11 forms public”.

Al Jazeera’s Haru Mutasa reports from Harare.

“A truly level playing field was not achieved”, European Union chief observer Elmar Brok said, pointing to the “misuse of state resources, instances of coercion and intimidation, partisan behaviour by traditional leaders and overt bias in state media”.

The Zimbabwean Electoral Commission (ZEC) was announcing results of the poll.

Zimbabwe’s main opposition leader Nelson Chamisa speaks during an interview at his offices in Harare.

The observers expressed concern about delays in releasing the results of the presidential contest.

The Zimbabwean MDC opposition party on Wednesday condemned the army for opening fire on protesters who were demonstrating against alleged fraud in the country’s election, after three people were killed.

“What they have done is intimidate people in the rural areas saying, “we will kill you if you vote MDC” and so on and then the global observers say this election was free and fair”.

The EU mission pointed out the “misuse of state resources, instances of coercion and intimidation, partisan behavior by traditional leaders and overt bias in state media” but says Monday’s election was largely peaceful in a break from the past. “We won the popular vote [and] will defend it”, Chamisa said on Twitter.

MDC supporters were seen dancing and celebrating in the streets outside the party’s headquarters as the vote count started.

Zimbabwe’s electoral body had announced earlier in the day that Mnangagwa’s long-ruling Zanu-PF party had won the majority of parliamentary seats in the country’s election on Monday.

If no candidate wins more than half the votes in the presidential election, there will be a runoff in five weeks.

He has repeatedly accused ZANU-PF and election authorities of trying to use a flawed electoral register and fixed ballot papers to steal the election. Unreasonably inflated figures from so called ZANU-PF strongholds are worrying against the backdrop that in 21% of polling stations mostly in those areas results were not posted as required by the law.

The House of Assembly of Parliament attracted 210 seats and ZANU-PF would need to win 30 more to have a two-thirds majority that would allow it to alter the constitution.

“Shortly before coming here, we passed out of the House of Representatives a resolution really calling on the Zimbabwean people to have a peaceful, transparent and fair election, and raising the possibility of evaluating USA policy”.

Mnangagwa’s government, meanwhile, accused Chamisa and his supporters of inciting “violence” by already declaring he had won the election, the first after former leader Mugabe stepped down in November.

The group’s members addressed journalists in Harare yesterday giving a post-mortem of the elections during which they hailed the manner in which the polls were conducted. Otherwise, a run-off election will be held on 8 September.