Zimbabwe's main opposition party has claimed that it has massive evidence that President Robert Mugabe won the country’s presidential election fraudulently. The Movement for Democratic Change has called for a fresh vote.
In a preliminary report on the poll, which was held on March 9 to11, the MDC claimed Mr Mugabe inflated voter turnout in rural areas, stuffed ballot boxes and locked out voters in the opposition's urban strongholds.
MDC leader Morgan Tsvangirai expressed the view that Mr Mugabe’s victory was "daylight robbery". However party officials said they were bolstered by the fact that local independent election observers had agreed unanimously with the MDC’s assessment that the election was not free or fair.
According to the Opposition, militants from Mr Mugabe's ruling ZANU-PF party used violence to chase away MDC polling agents from the countryside and took advantage of their absence to either stuff ballot boxes or to under-state MDC votes during counting.
The opposition has called for the setting up of a "confidence-building mechanism" in addition to the restoration of law and order, the repeal of repressive laws, the appointment of an independent electoral commission and guarantees of equal access to public media before a new election is called.
The government has dismissed the accusations of fraud as emanating from Western powers that want to see the 78-year-old leader ousted from power because of his controversial policy of land seizures from white farmers.
Zimbabwe was suspended from the Commonwealth for a year last week, following accusations of electoral fraud by election observers.
