MDC confident of victory


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Movement for Democratic Change secretary general for the Tsvangirai faction, Tendai Biti said his party had won 96 of the 128 seats it had so far received results for and its leader Morgan Tsvangirai had 60 percent of the vote in the presidential race with Mugabe trailing behind with 30 percent and Simba Makoni 10 percent.

Biti said even with vote rigging, the worst case scenario would be a runoff.

The Zimbabwe Election Supervisory Network which was carrying out a parallel vote count said it would not release its results until the Zimbabwe Election Commission’s results were complete.

It said it did not have sufficient results to credibly present findings at the time

The United States embassy had hoped ZESN would release its results before the ZEC results to place the ZEC under pressure.

The ZESN vote count was being funded by the United States government.

 

Full cable:

 

Viewing cable 08HARARE252, POST-ELECTION UPDATE: MDC CONFIDENT OF SUCCESS

If you are new to these pages, please read an introduction on the structure of a cable as well as how to discuss them with others. See also the FAQs

Reference ID

Created

Released

Classification

Origin

08HARARE252

2008-03-31 12:26

2011-08-30 01:44

CONFIDENTIAL

Embassy Harare

VZCZCXRO8934

OO RUEHDU RUEHMR RUEHRN

DE RUEHSB #0252 0911226

ZNY CCCCC ZZH

O 311226Z MAR 08

FM AMEMBASSY HARARE

TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC IMMEDIATE 2654

INFO RUCNSAD/SOUTHERN AFRICAN DEVELOPMENT COMMUNITY

RUEHAR/AMEMBASSY ACCRA 1858

RUEHDS/AMEMBASSY ADDIS ABABA 1981

RUEHRL/AMEMBASSY BERLIN 0554

RUEHBY/AMEMBASSY CANBERRA 1258

RUEHDK/AMEMBASSY DAKAR 1615

RUEHKM/AMEMBASSY KAMPALA 2037

RUEHNR/AMEMBASSY NAIROBI 4468

RUEAIIA/CIA WASHDC

RUZEJAA/JAC MOLESWORTH RAF MOLESWORTH UK

RHMFISS/EUCOM POLAD VAIHINGEN GE

RHEFDIA/DIA WASHDC

RUEHGV/USMISSION GENEVA 1108

RHEHAAA/NSC WASHDC

C O N F I D E N T I A L HARARE 000252

 

SIPDIS

 

SIPDIS

 

AF/S FOR S. HILL

ADDIS ABABA FOR USAU

ADDIS ABABA FOR ACSS

STATE PASS TO USAID FOR E. LOKEN AND L. DOBBINS

STATE PASS TO NSC FOR SENIOR AFRICA DIRECTOR B. PITTMAN

 

E.O. 12958: DECL: 03/31/2018

TAGS: PREL PGOV ASEC ZI

SUBJECT: POST-ELECTION UPDATE: MDC CONFIDENT OF SUCCESS

 

REF: HARARE 249 AND PREVIOUS

 

Classified By: Ambassador James D. McGee for reason 1.4 (d)

 

1. (U) Embassy Harare lifted its Stand Fast, issued last

night, this morning. Harare and the rest of the country are

calm as people await the announcement of election results.

 

2. (U) The MDC held a press conference at 11 am. MDC

secretary general Tendai Biti announced that the MDC had

 

SIPDIS

results on 128 of the 210 House of Assembly seats. Of these,

the MDC had won 96. In the race for president, with 931,653

votes reported to the MDC by its polling agents, Biti said

Tsvangirai had won about 60 percent, Mugabe 30 percent, and

 

SIPDIS

Simba Makoni 10 percent. Acknowledging the probability of

rigging in the vote count, Biti said a worse case scenario

was a runoff.

 

3. (U) Biti derided SADC for declaring yesterday that

Zimbabwe’s election was “free, fair, and credible.” Pointing

to problems in the run-up to the election and irregularities

during the election, he said that a free and fair election in

Zimbabwe under current conditions was not credible.

 

4. (C) A member of the Zimbabwe Election Support Network

(ZESN) told us that ZESN would not release its parallel vote

count until the Zimbabwe Election Commission (ZEC) results

were complete. She said ZESN did not have sufficient results

to credibly present findings at this time. (COMMENT: We had

hoped ZESN could release its findings before ZEC results in

order to place pressure on ZEC. END COMMENT.)

 

5. (C) The MDC told us that at its next press conference,

possibly this afternoon, it expects to have sufficient

election results to announce a Tsvangirai victory.

Tsvangirai will personally make the announcement.

 

SIPDIS

 

6. (C) COMMENT: While the MDC insists Tsvangirai will gain

over 50 percent of the vote, it appears resigned to a runoff.

We understand dissident elements within ZANU-PF, including

General Solomon Mujuru have been in contact with Tsvangirai,

and are seeking to deny a Mugabe victory. Mujuru and his

people have contacts within the ZEC and may well be in a

position to prevent rigging that would give Mugabe an

outright victory. While Biti feels that a runoff is the

worst case scenario, given the perfidy of ZANU-PF, a runoff

may represent a best case scenario. END COMMENT.

 

MCGEE

(31 VIEWS)

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Charles Rukuni
The Insider is a political and business bulletin about Zimbabwe, edited by Charles Rukuni. Founded in 1990, it was a printed 12-page subscription only newsletter until 2003 when Zimbabwe's hyper-inflation made it impossible to continue printing.

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