Vote recount: Mugabe's party loses parliament

HARARE, Zimbabwe - President Robert Mugabe's party has failed to win back control of Zimbabwe's parliament in a partial vote recount, official results showed on Saturday.

For the first time in 28 years, the opposition wrested a parliamentary majority from Mugabe's ruling ZANU-PF in a March 29 poll, triggering a recount of 23 out of 210 constituencies.

The Zimbabwe Electoral Commission said 14 out of the 23 seats had been recounted so far, and the original result was confirmed in all of them.

To win back a parliamentary majority, the ruling party needed to win nine more seats than it did in the first count.

But even if ZANU-PF won all the seats left in the recount, it would fall short of the majority because it had already won three of the remaining nine seats being recounted.

Original results from the voting showed opposition parties — including the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) — won 110 seats to Mugabe's 97. Three seats are vacant, awaiting by-elections after the deaths of candidates.

Differences between the original count and recounts were minor, with only a single vote difference recorded in one of the 10 districts. Regional election observers said they believed that pattern was likely to continue, without major reversals.

Delaying tactic?
Results of the parallel presidential vote have not been released and the recount has been widely seen as a delaying tactic by Mugabe's party and state election authorities.

The MDC says its leader Morgan Tsvangirai beat his old foe Mugabe in the election.

The delay in announcing the presidential result and a recount of some parliamentary votes has brought growing international pressure on Mugabe, 84, and stoked fears of bloodshed in a country suffering an economic collapse.

Raids
The recount results came hours after riot police and intelligence officers ransacked the country's opposition party headquarters and the offices of independent election monitors. Material documenting Mugabe's apparent defeat in the presidential election was also removed in Friday's raids.

Police confirmed that they arrested 215 people in the raid on Tsvangirai's headquarters in Harare and also searched the offices of the independent Zimbabwe Election Support
Network. They said they were looking for evidence that the Western-funded organization
bribed state election officials to rig polling results.

About 250 riot police wielding batons carried out a sweep on the opposition's Harvest House offices in the capital, Harare.

The opposition said those arrested were seeking refuge after being attacked by ruling party loyalists in the countryside.

Women, some pregnant or with babies strapped to their backs, were among those taken away by police. Girls who had been threatened with rape and men with broken bones were also herded into a bus and pickup truck during the raid, the opposition said.

Others had come for help and news of relatives missing in a wave of violence against opposition supporters blamed on militants of Mugabe's party.

Police spokesman Wayne Bvudzijena said those arrested were suspected of involvement in political violence.

Children detained
Human rights lawyer Alec Muchadehama said among those detained were 24 children, "some still suckling" as well as six people over the age of 60.

He said lawyers had been assured by police that the babies would be released but this had not happened by Saturday morning.

There had been reports of beatings of those being held in various police stations across the city, he said. No charges have been put to them.

'Seeking refuge'
"They are internally displaced people. They were seeking refuge. Their houses had been destroyed or they were running away or wanted help to get to a hospital," he said.

The raids sent a powerful message that Zimbabwe's longtime leader intends to hold on to power despite a growing global clamor for him to step aside and rising violence at home.

Hundreds of opposition supporters have been abducted, tortured and assaulted in recent weeks in what independent religious and human rights groups call a violent crackdown on dissent.

Human Rights Watch told the AP that a campaign against those perceived to have "voted wrongly" has escalated this week.

Carolyn Norris, the New York-based group's deputy director for Africa, said soldiers have joined in torturing and beating people in recent days. Previously, ruling party officials, militiamen and war veterans carried out the violence at informal torture centers in the countryside, the rights group said.

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