HARARE, Zimbabwe - Zimbabwe's embattled opposition on Sunday demanded new parliamentary elections under a different constitution, saying voting can never be free and fair under the current legislative framework....
Citing major inconsistencies in the results, opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai maintained Sunday that his Movement for Democratic Change, or MDC, won 94 of Parliament's 120 elected seats, and not the 41 announced by electoral officials. MDC officials did not specify how they calculated the figure.
Read it here.
The Guardian meanwhile reports on Sokwanele, a "pro-democracy" movement, committed to non-violent protest that is trying to promote a "peaceful uprising" on the model of Ukraine.
Read it here [lots of links to sources on Zimbabwe here].
But post-election protests have not been peaceful, nor have they been very effective.
AFP reports:
HARARE (AFP) - Police in Zimbabwe went on high alert after youths took to the streets in Harare to urge Zimbabweans to reject the outcome of elections overwhelmingly won by President Robert Mubage's party....
Police said groups of supporters of the opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) stoned shops and assaulted passers-by in Harare on Monday to protest the results from elections their party said were rigged....
This provoked an ominous response from Mugabe's thugs:
"The police... will not tolerate any acts of violence and will use resources at its disposal to ensure that there is peace and security for everyone on the country."Read it here.
We have seen the not inconsiderable "resources" used by Zimbabwe's police in the past. Things do not bode well for the protesters, peaceful and otherwise.
Let us hope cooler heads prevail.
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