Zimbabwe election: US and UK move to impose sanctions

Mugabe, standing for the ruling ZANU-PF, claimed to have received more than 85 percent of the vote. But his only opponent, Morgan Tsvangirai of the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC), had withdrawn from the campaign because of the level of violence and intimidation. International observers condemned the elections. The current atmosphere prevailing in the country did not give rise to the conduct of free, fair and credible elections, said Marwick Khumalo head of the Pan-African Parliament monitoring team.

Observers from Zimbabwes neighbours in the Southern African Development Community (SADC) concurred. The elections, the SADC observers concluded, did not represent the will of the people of Zimbabwe.

The elections were worse than those we witnessed in Angola in 1992, after decades of war, and are not credible, one SADC observer said.

Zimbabwean observers called off their plans to monitor the polls because it was too dangerous.

A government-sponsored campaign of beatings, kidnappings and murders has left 104 people dead and 3,500 injured. Doctors who have been treating the wounded say that this is just the tip of the iceberg. What we are seeing is probably 10 percent of what has actually happened, a doctor who wished to remain anonymous told reporters. He said that the violence was the worst the country has witnessed.

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