ZIMBABWE:THE SOUTH African member of the regional observer team sent to monitor the partial recount of Zimbabwe's general election has accused the ruling regime of rigging the process.
Democratic Alliance MP Dianne Kohler-Barnard, a member of the Southern African Development Community observer mission, said that while overseeing the 23-constituency recount she came across evidence supporting the view that widespread electoral fraud was under way.
"From what I have seen and experienced in Zimbabwe over the past three days, it is clear that the process of recounting the contested wards from the recent elections is fatally flawed.
"Of particular concern was the evidence of ballot box tampering that I witnessed personally, which points to a concerted effort to rig the election results in order to bring about a Mugabe 'victory'," she said in a statement.
Ms Kohler-Barnard said that among other things some ballot boxes had broken or missing seals while others had missing keys and no voting paper books inside.
The Zimbabwe Electoral Commission undertook the recount after President Robert Mugabe's ruling Zanu-PF party, which lost control of parliament to a combined opposition by 110 seats to 97, accused state-appointed officials of committing fraud in favour of the opposition.
The recount, which began last Saturday, was expected to last three days, but officials indicated it might take longer.
Meanwhile the International Transport Workers' Federation (ITF) said yesterday it was mobilising members across southern Africa to ensure a ship carrying arms from China for Zimbabwe could not offload in African harbours. "Our objective is to mobilise and organise unions in Africa to take a firm stand and try to stop the ship from offloading these dangerous weapons which could be used to kill Zimbabweans," said ITF spokesman Sprite Zungu.
The Chinese ship, An Yue Jiang, left South Africa last Friday after a court barred its cargo from being transported to the border between both countries. It is now believed to be heading towards Angola, a country sympathetic to Zimbabwe's ruling regime.
Elsewhere, divorce proceedings at Harare High Court involving Mr Mugabe's nephew Leo have revealed the extent of cronyism under the regime. Despite insisting he only had one farm, divorce papers show that Zanu-PF MP Leo Mugabe owns at least three large farms, all of which were taken from white farmers by the government.