c. 2005 Religion News Service

(UNDATED) The All Africa Council of Churches has called on the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission to “urgently” investigate claims of some irregularities in that country’s March 31 parliamentary election.

The election gave President Robert Mugabe’s ruling Zanu-PF party an overwhelming victory, providing it with the two-thirds majority needed to amend the constitution at will.

The opposition Movement for Democratic Change has charged that there was widespread fraud, fear and intimidation. U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice accused Mugabe of policies “designed to repress, crush and otherwise stifle expressions of differences in Zimbabwe.”

The U.S. Embassy in Harare released its own report on the election. It said that its monitoring of the vote found “several patterns of irregularities that raised concern about the freeness and fairness of the process.”

The carefully worded African Council of Churches statement said the reports it had received from church-based observers indicate that “the tranquillity which prevailed during the pre-election period continued during the polling day, with voters expressing their right freely and in a peaceful environment.”

“They (the observers) conclude that the voting went quite well and the counting was transparent. The elections were orderly.

“We thank the Almighty God for the peace and quietness that prevailed throughout the Election Day.”

At the same time, the Nairobi, Kenya-based church council said it had received reports of voters being turned away, problems with voters lists and discrepancies between figures of voters reported at polling stations and final tallies.

And it express “unease” over conditions that “contributed to an unlevel playing field,” including the suppression of an independent media and restrictive laws limiting opposition and nongovernmental organizations.

The Zimbabwe Lawyers for Human Rights organization also decried the election process, saying it had counted 60,427 invalid or miscast ballots in 10 provinces and 133,155 voters turned away in six provinces.

The April 6 church council report came one day after the African Union Observer Team also called for an investigation of allegations of electoral fraud.

Prior to the election, the Zimbabwean government had barred the Rev. Molefe Tsele, general secretary of the South African Council of Churches, from entering the country. Tsele had been invited as an observer by the Zimbabwean Council of Churches.

While the South African government has given its support to the 81-year-old Mugabe, South African church leaders, led by retired Anglican Archbishop Desmond Tutu, have been sharply critical of Mugabe and what they say is his increasingly autocratic leadership.

Last Thursday, Mugabe defied a European Union travel ban and flew from Zimbabwe to Rome to attend the funeral of Pope John Paul II.

The trip was denounced by Roman Catholic Archbishop Pius Ncube of Bulawayo, Zimbabwe’s second-largest city.

“That man will use any opportunity to fly to Europe to promote himself,” The Associated Press quoted Ncube as saying. “The man is shameless.”

Ncube said the Italian government was obligated by its treaties with the Vatican to allow Mugabe in for the pope’s funeral despite the travel ban and that the Vatican was likely to be too preoccupied with the pope’s death to express its concern about Mugabe’s human rights record.

“The (Vatican) secretary of state might be rather too busy right now to talk to him but when someone in the family has died, you appreciate all the sympathy you can get from all people, even murderers, crooks and thieves like Mugabe.”

Ncube has emerged as Mugabe’s fiercest critic in Zimbabwe. His recent remarks skirt the edge of a new law imposing a five-year prison sentence for undermining the dignity or authority of the head of state.

Just days before the election, Ncube called for a nonviolent mass uprising like that in Ukraine.

“I hope that people get so disillusioned that they really organize against the government and kick him (Mugabe) out by a nonviolent, popular mass uprising,” Ncube said in an interview with South Africa’s Sunday Independent.

Mugabe, who describes himself as a practicing Catholic, responded by calling Ncube a “half-wit,” adding, “I don’t know why the Vatican tolerates prayers of that nature,” Reuters reported.

MO/PH END RNS