A Call for Fresh Vote in Zimbabwe

The beleaguered opposition on Sunday demanded new parliamentary elections under a different constitution, saying voting in Zimbabwe could never be free and fair under the current legislative framework.

President Robert Mugabe’s party scored an overwhelming victory in an election Thursday that was condemned by all but his closest African neighbors as severely flawed.

Opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai maintained Sunday that his Movement for Democratic Change, or MDC, had 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.

Mugabe’s ruling ZANU-PF claimed 78 seats, and one went to an independent candidate, according to official results. Under the constitution, the president appoints 30 lawmakers, which will give Mugabe’s party a more than two-thirds majority.

Opposition leaders and independent rights groups said years of violence, intimidation and repressive laws skewed the election in Mugabe’s favor -- a view echoed by Britain and the U.S.

“As long as we run elections under the same set of conditions, there is no way that elections will be free and fair,” opposition spokesman William Bango said Sunday.

The opposition and independent rights groups have complained of huge discrepancies in the results. In one area, the number of votes counted exceeded the number of people who cast ballots by more than 15,000, according to official figures.

By Sunday, electoral officials had released turnout figures for only six of the country’s 10 provinces. They refused to explain the reason for the delay.

Ruling party spokesman William Nhara said South African President Thabo Mbeki and Mozambique’s President Armando Guebuza were quietly pressing Zimbabwe to form a power-sharing government -- a move rejected by Mugabe.

“We don’t need them to govern,” Nhara said of the opposition. “This country is not at war, we are not in crisis, and we had a fairly democratic election.”

Kwadwo Afari-Gyan, chief of an observer mission from the African Union, said the vote was “technically competent and transparent.” But he stopped short of calling it free and fair.