Dismal turnout in Zim Senate poll

HARARE – Most of Zimbabwe’s electorate chose not to vote in Saturday’s election for a Senate already stuffed with reserved seats for members of President Robert Mugabe’s ruling party.

The average voter turn-out could end up at about 15 per cent of the country’s 3,2 million registered voters, observers said yesterday. Mugabe’s Zanu-PF party began the election as a certain winner, with 35 of the 66 seats already reserved for them.The Zimbabwe Election Support Network, a local group that fights for free and fair elections, said most people had stayed away because they were not aware of the role of the senate.”This re-emphasises ZESN’s concerns on the ill-timing of the senatorial elections which comes (against) the backdrop of an imploding economy and a political crisis,” the group said in a statement seen by Reuters yesterday.The opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) leader Morgan Tsvangirai said the voters had vindicated his call to boycott an election that lends legitimacy to a process of entrenching the power of Mugabe and his party.”We were proved right in our assessment of the national sentiment,” Tsvangirai said.”We must change gears from discredited election processes that bring pain to our people to an era of democratic mass confrontation with the dictatorship – an era of non violent mass resistance,” he said, adding that the MDC should set aside its internal squabbles to demand a new constitution.Although voters appeared to be in line with Tsvangirai’s sympathies, a faction of his own party disagreed with him enough to field candidates.MDC Secretary-General Welshman Ncube’s splinter group fielded 26 candidates, mostly in the south-western Matabeleland provinces.They took five seats in the Bulawayo metropolitan province.Tsvangirai said members who participated in Saturday’s poll remained expelled from the party.Yesterday’s results showed that Zanu-PF had won two of the five seats in Harare province, a traditional opposition stronghold.More results were expected throughout the day.- Nampa-ReutersMugabe’s Zanu-PF party began the election as a certain winner, with 35 of the 66 seats already reserved for them.The Zimbabwe Election Support Network, a local group that fights for free and fair elections, said most people had stayed away because they were not aware of the role of the senate.”This re-emphasises ZESN’s concerns on the ill-timing of the senatorial elections which comes (against) the backdrop of an imploding economy and a political crisis,” the group said in a statement seen by Reuters yesterday.The opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) leader Morgan Tsvangirai said the voters had vindicated his call to boycott an election that lends legitimacy to a process of entrenching the power of Mugabe and his party.”We were proved right in our assessment of the national sentiment,” Tsvangirai said.”We must change gears from discredited election processes that bring pain to our people to an era of democratic mass confrontation with the dictatorship – an era of non violent mass resistance,” he said, adding that the MDC should set aside its internal squabbles to demand a new constitution.Although voters appeared to be in line with Tsvangirai’s sympathies, a faction of his own party disagreed with him enough to field candidates.MDC Secretary-General Welshman Ncube’s splinter group fielded 26 candidates, mostly in the south-western Matabeleland provinces.They took five seats in the Bulawayo metropolitan province.Tsvangirai said members who participated in Saturday’s poll remained expelled from the party.Yesterday’s results showed that Zanu-PF had won two of the five seats in Harare province, a traditional opposition stronghold.More results were expected throughout the day.- Nampa-Reuters