English
Video shows Zimbabwe ‘vote-rigging’
 President Mugabe addresses supporters at Harare airport on his return to Harare from African Union summit. |
Video secretly recorded by a Zimbabwean prison guard appears to show evidence of vote-rigging in the country’s recent presidential runoff election.
The footage, shot with a secret camera provided by the British newspaper The Guardian, was posted on the paper’s Web site Saturday. The paper said the guard had since fled the country with his family.
The video shows the guard, Shepherd Yuda, being summoned along with other prison guards to an office at Harare’s central jail days before the June 27 runoff between President Robert Mugabe and opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai.
Once there, a supporter of Mugabe’s ZANU-PF party instructs the guards to vote by postal ballot while he watches. The ZANU-PF supporter, named only as “Shambira,” takes careful note of the guards’ ballot numbers and which candidate they vote for, and even helps Yuda properly fold his ballot and put it inside the envelope.
“The atmosphere in the room seems benign, but it’s deceptive,” the voiceover says. “Everyone voting knows that Shambira has the power to condemn them as MDC supporters.”
MDC is the Movement for Democratic Change, the opposition party headed by Tsvangirai.
Allegations of vote-rigging in the election are not new, but evidence of it has been rare. The Guardian said the video is believed to be the first footage of vote-rigging from the Zimbabwean election.
According to the paper, Yuda, 36, made the film to draw further attention to violence and corruption in Zimbabwe. He initially wanted to chronicle secretly life inside Zimbabwe’s jails but kept filming when he found himself present for the postal voting, the paper said.
Yuda also filmed a compulsory meeting at the jail at which top prison officers instructed the guards whom to vote for, the paper said.
As the guards sit in rows of chairs, a man at the front of the room says, “Forward with ZANU-PF! Down with MDC!” Later on, the man says, “Tsvangirai, even if you vote for him, even if he wins, he will never rule this country.”
The paper says Yuda worked for the prison service for 13 years but fled the country this week with his wife and children.
“I’ve decided to leave Zimbabwe,” Yuda tells the camera. “It is a painful decision that I should leave.”
Tsvangirai dropped out of the runoff amid complaints of violence and intimidation, but his name and image remained on the ballot in what became a widely discredited one-man election. Mugabe claimed victory and was sworn in for a sixth consecutive term this week.
Mugabe has come under harsh international criticism for the election-related violence. The African Union this week stopped short of condemning him but urged dialogue between Mugabe and Tsvangirai.
The opposition leader has rejected that call, saying conditions are not conducive to talks.
A draft resolution before the U.N. Security Council would impose U.N. sanctions on Mugabe and 11 senior members of his government.
The sanctions would impose a travel ban on Mugabe and the others, would freeze many of their assets, and would impose an international arms embargo on the regime.
The draft, circulated by the United States this week, expresses deep concern at voting irregularities, violence, and intimidation ahead of the runoff vote that it said made free and fair elections impossible. Source: CNN
More Top News
Hollywood heavyweights Robert De Niro and Al Pacino reunited on the red carpet in New York Wednesday night for the premiere of their new crime thriller “Righteous Kill” — their first film together since making 1995’s “Heat.”
The movie also stars
The Pakistani Army has been given orders to retaliate against any unilateral strike by the Afghanistan-based US troops inside the country.
Army Spokesman Maj Gen Athar Abbas confirmed the orders in a brief interview with Geo News on late Thursday night.
The
Russian President Dmitry Medvedev says he will not accept military action or new sanctions against Iran over its nuclear activities.
“We should not take any unilateral steps. It is not acceptable to opt for a military scenario. It would be dangerous,”
As the world marks the seventh anniversary of 9/11, some European experts say security improvements in the US have been undercut by fairly basic mistakes. Among the remedies is more trust in America’s laws and allies.
Seven years after the attacks
David Miliband has allegedly come in for a rather undiplomatic tongue-lashing from his Russian counterpart.
The Foreign Secretary was apparently given a furious dressing down by Sergei Lavrov over the telephone.
Mr Miliband’s criticism of Russia’s recent incursion into Georgia is believed
PIETERMARITZBURG, South Africa - A South African judge ruled Friday that prosecutors were wrong to charge ANC President Jacob Zuma with corruption, effectively clearing way for the 66-year-old former freedom fighter to become the country’s next president.
Judge Chris Nicholson’s ruling
Thailand’s political turmoil deepened Friday when the ruling coalition failed to turn up to parliament to reelect leader Samak Sundaravej as prime minister.
Lawmakers from the six-party coalition did not attend an emergency session of parliament called to choose a prime minister, three days after a court stripped Samak of power for accepting payments for hosting
Feeds