Mugabe Wins "Rigged" Elections in Zimbabwe

President Mugabe’s ruling party has been announced as victorious in the Zimbabwe Parliamentary elections on Friday. However, the result has predictably been shrouded in controversy as the opposition party accuse the government of a "massive fraud" to win the election.

Mugabe has been accused of treating the country as "his private property" and of having no respect for the rights of Zimbabwe’s people by opposing powers.

The African National Union – Patriotic Front (ZANU-PF) party led by President Robert Mugabe managed to win 46 of the 120 seats up contested in the election – however in addition to these seats Mugabe also directly appointed an additional 30 seats to his party – thus giving the ZANU-PF party enough seats to gain a clear domination within the Parliament.

The leading opposition party, the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) managed to obtain 32 seats, gaining seats in Harare and the county’s second city of Bulawayo. However, the rural vote went the ZANU-PF.

MDC leader, Morgan Tsvangirai reported, "This (is a) disgusting, massive fraud." He also added that Mugabe ensured that he would win the two-third majority in the Parliament so that he would have freedom to alter the constitution.

Tsvangirai gave examples of discrepancies in a number of constituencies between the number of voters and the final tally announced in the election results. In particular in Manyame a 10,000 vote gap seemed to appear between the number of voters and the final result count.

Mugabe’s family all won through in their constituencies – his nephew Patrick Zhuwao, brother Leo, and mother Sabina Mugabe.

Tsvangirai said, "He is going to do what he wants, this is his private property and for people to even claim that this is a democratic process, when it is so fraudulent, is totally not acceptable."

In Thursday’s vote the turn out of those that were eligible to vote was below 50%, but the voting took place reasonably peacefully compared with previous elections in 2000 and 2002 in which many were reported to have been killed and beaten.

Mugabe plainly denies all accusations of fraud and said the talk was "nonsense". He said, "Everybody is seeing that these are free and fair elections."

In the run-up to the elections the Roman Catholic Archbishop of Bulawayo, Pius Ncube had called on the country’s people to rise up in peaceful protest against the oppressive Mugabe government.

In addition the Zimbabwe elections have been condemned by rights groups who say that the political process in the country is spoilt through years of violence and intimidation from Mugabe’s ruling government.

Archbishop Ncube has stated his belief that Mugabe won the elections because they were overseen by Mugabe’s military and were definitely rigged.

In response the leader of the ruling ZANU-PF party, President Mugabe said, "I don’t know to which God he prays. His prayers are not as pious as his name suggests apparently. He is...a half-wit. I don’t know why the Vatican tolerates prayers of that nature."

The highly controversial leader dismissed the fears of fraud in the elections as "nonsense" on Thursday and said, "Everybody has seen that these are free and fair elections."

British foreign secretary stated his opinion that the elections were "seriously flawed" and that Mugabe had "yet again denied ordinary Zimbabweans a free and fair opportunity to vote, further prolonging the political and economic crisis he has inflicted on their country."

Other rumours have been raised regarding many people being turned away from polling stations, but reports have indicated that it is not clear how many people may have been affected by this restriction to their voting.