July 2001 Africa News Headlines

HARARE - Zimbabwe's opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) said its candidate in a crucial parliamentary by-election was arrested yesterday as voters queued in the Bindura mining town north of Harare.

"The MDC's Bindura candidate, Elliott Pfebve, is under arrest. The police are not saying why he has been arrested," MDC information secretary Learnmore Jongwe told Reuters.

Jongwe said Pfebve was being held at the Bindura police station.

Police could not immediately be contacted for comment.

Earlier yesterday, the MDC reported that 21 young party supporters were missing after having been abducted, apparently by supporters of President Robert Mugabe's ruling Zanu-PF, on Saturday evening.

The Bindura seat fell vacant when Deputy Youth and Gender Minister BorderGezi was killed in a car accident in April.

The by-election pits Elliott Manyika of Zanu-PF against the MDC's Pfebve, a local businessman who lost to Gezi in the June 2000 national election.

The vote in Bindura is seen as a key test of Mugabe's chances of winning a new six-year term in a presidential election due next April.

"Twenty-one MDC youths are still missing after being kidnapped...around 6.30 pm yesterday (Saturday) by a group of about 90 Zanu-PF supporters," the MDCsaid in a statement.

It said the youths were abducted in the Musana area of Bindura constituency, where some 56,000 people are eligible to vote in a two-day by-election, which ended yesterday evening. - Nampa-Reuters

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