Zimbabwe opposition figure fleeing arrest denied asylum in Zambia

A top Zimbabwean opposition official that fled to Zambia has been denied asylum and is expected to face arrest at home as concerns rose over a government crackdown after last week’s disputed presidential election.

Tendai Biti, Zimbabwe‘s former finance minister and a leader of the opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC), claimed asylum in Zambia on Wednesday after making a dash for the border, reportedly facing charges of inciting post-election violence in Zimbabwe.

Biti said he is going to be deported, according to Dewa Mavinga of Human Rights Watch.

Mavhinga said Biti told him: “It looks like they have made a decision to hand us back to the junta. We are truly in God’s hands.”

Biti’s plight follows scenes of the military opening fire in the streets of Zimbabwe’s capital a week ago, killing six people, and growing opposition claims of harassment.

The events further challenged assertions by newly elected President Emmerson Mnangagwa of a “flowering” of democracy after longtime leader Robert Mugabe stepped down in November under military pressure.

The MDC has denounced Mnangagwa’s July 30 election victory as fraudulent and vowed to challenge it in court this week.

According to Zimbabwe’s state-run Chronicle newspaper, Biti is among nine suspects sought for inciting protests last week at which the army opened fire, killing six people.

The asylum drama came, as the MDC said it would lodge a court challenge against the election results in which incumbent Emmerson Mnangagwa won 50.8 percent.

MDC has until Friday to lodge its suit and the Constitutional Court must rule on the petition within 14 days, possibly delaying the presidential inauguration.

On Friday, Mnangagwa was declared winner in the country’s first elections since the downfall of autocrat, Robert Mugabe, but the MDC claim the ruling ZANU-PF party won through “mammoth theft and fraud”.

Arrests and beatings

The result was just enough to avoid a run-off between Mnangagwa, the former Mugabe ally who replaced him, and his MDC rival Nelson Chamisa, who scored 44.3 percent.

“Those results represent a total negation of the will of the people,” MDC lawyer Thabani Mpofu told reporters in Harare, charging that the results published by the Zimbabwe Election Commission (ZEC) “grossly mathematically fail to tally”.

Mnangagwa, who is seeking to reverse Zimbabwe’s economic isolation and attract badly needed foreign investment, had vowed the elections would turn a page on Mugabe’s repressive 37-year repressive rule.

But the election has been marred by accusations of a post-vote crackdown on the opposition as well as the deadly protests and rigging claims.

Human Rights Watch has reported multiple cases of beatings and harassment in Harare’s suburbs, as soldiers allegedly attack opposition supporters, sparking alarm from the European Union and United States.

The MDC headquarters were raided last week by authorities in what Mpofu described as “an attempt to destroy our evidence” for election rigging, but he said their data was secure.

Secret weapon? 

Mpofu declined to detail what evidence of fraud the MDC claims to have, promising instead to reveal “a secret weapon” in court.

Alexander Noyes, an analyst at the US Center for Strategic and International Studies, said the legal case had little chance of success due to the courts’ “long-held bias” towards ZANU-PF.

He added the MDC would likely cite a EU observer report that concluded the election was held on an “un-level playing field”, with Mnangagwa benefiting from state resources as well as a degree of voter intimidation. 

Derek Matyszak, Zimbabwe analyst at the Institute for Security Studies, said he would be “very surprised” if the detailed results published by the electoral commission were fraudulent.

“It would be rather odd to manipulate the results and then issue a spreadsheet inviting people to find out exactly how that manipulation had taken place,” he told AFP.

The ZEC was notorious for fraud under Mugabe, but it has staunchly denied allegations of rigging this time around, as have Mnangagwa and his party.

UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has told Mnangagwa he must rein in his security forces, also speaking with Chamisa to urge him not to take his party out onto the streets.

Analysts say Mnangagwa needs strong international support if he hopes to succeed in his bid to reverse the massive damage Mugabe did to Zimbabwe’s economy.

Agricultural output plummeted after Mugabe began seizing white-owned farms in 2000 and public services are in ruins, while hyperinflation has forced Zimbabwe to abandon its currency and rely largely on the US dollar instead.