Zimbabwe’s official election commission has confirmed that the Zimbabwe Africa National Union-Patriotic Front (Zanu-PF), the party which has ruled the country for nearly 30 years, has lost its parliamentary majority, news agencies report.
The figures were released hours after the opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) claimed victory in both the parliamentary and presidential elections. However, the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission (ZEC) has yet to announce the results of the presidential election.
Reuters reported the ZEC as announcing that President Robert Mugabe’s party had won 94 of the 210 seats in parliament. With only seven results outstanding, the party could not win the 106 seats it would need to control parliament.
Perhaps the best of all outcomes for Zimbabwe. The Mutambara faction (most of whose members endured the same persecution before the 2005 split) will have a stake in the process and the MDC will have a clear majority but not an overwhelming one.
Let us pray that the violence of 2000 will not be repeated and that either an exit strategy for Robert Mugabe will be found or the runoff confirms Morgan Tsvangirai as Zimbabwe’s new president.
The frontline states and South Africa should take note; if over the past eight years Zimbabweans have bled and died for this moment, it is because no African leader was willing to call the present leadership to account.