Mugabe confident of victory in historic Zimbabwe vote

 



  HARARE-Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe predicted victory 
Saturday as he cast his ballots in presidential and local 
elections at a primary school in Harare's working-class suburb 
of Highfield.

  Asked if he would accept the results of the hotly contested 
election, Mugabe said: "I will accept it, more than accept it 
because I will have won."

  The 78-year-old former guerrilla leader, who has governed since 
independence in 1980, took another swipe at the former colonial 
power Britain and other western nations, which he said have 
prejudged the vote.

  "They don't want the president of Zimbabwe to remain the 
president of Zimbabwe," he told reporters outside the school.

  Mugabe has faced widespread criticism and sanctions from the 
European Union and the United States over alleged rights 
violations and manipulation of the election process.

  Tinkering has left voting procedures so confusing in Harare that 
even Mugabe and his top aides appeared unsure of where the 
president was to vote.

  Mugabe was clearly expected to turn up at Mhofu School in 
Highfield, where state television had a truck posted and had 
been broadcasting live since polls opened early Saturday.

  Several of Mugabe's ministers and senior aides were also on hand 
to see their leader cast his ballot, as well as a throng of 
reporters and camera operators.

  But it turned out the president would perform his civic duty 
instead at Kudzanai School, also in Highfield. Mugabe had to 
vote at that particular ward in order to be able to cast ballots 
both for president and for mayor in Harare, which is holding the 
two elections simultaneously.

  The opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) complained 
that the set-up was deliberately confusing in a ploy to 
discourage the urban vote, which is thought to favor Mugabe's 
challenger Morgan Tsvangirai. -AFP

  
@ Pakistan Observer 1998-2001