Posted on 03/08/2002 2:21:38 AM PST by kattracks
HARARE, Zimbabwe, Mar 08, 2002 (AP Online via COMTEX) -- The final day of campaigning in Zimbabwe's most sharply contested presidential race began Friday after the Supreme Court ruled tens of thousands of people were not eligible to vote.
The court, largely stacked with judges loyal to President Robert Mugabe, ruled in favor of a government appeal that would ban those who hold dual citizenship from voting, disqualifying many whites and tens of thousands of black farm workers from neighboring countries.
In his last day on the campaign trail, Mugabe, 78, toured his ruling party's rural strongholds north of Harare. The increasingly unpopular Mugabe has resorted to repressive legislation and violent intimidation of the opposition to stay in office after 22 years in power.
His opponent, Morgan Tsvangirai, 49, planned to spend Friday visiting industrial districts in Harare, strongholds of his labor-backed opposition party Movement for Democratic Change.
In a ruling issued late Thursday, the Supreme Court granted an appeal filed by the state against an earlier decision by the High Court that permitted residents with a second foreign citizenship to vote.
The High Court, the second highest court in the country, had deferred new citizenship rules requiring dual citizens to renounce their right to foreign nationality until after the elections.
But in striking down that decision, the Supreme Court also ruled against an opposition appeal that voters be allowed to vote wherever they lived, and not only in their home voting districts.
In their appeal, lawyers for the opposition argued that restricting voting to home districts would effectively disenfranchise thousands of its supporters driven from their homes by political violence as well urban supporters now required to return to rural home districts where they first registered as eligible voters.
Chief Justice Godfrey Chiyausikyu rejected the opposition's argument and said in his ruling that the constitution did not automatically guarantee the right to vote at any polling station.
Opposition officials said there were widespread state-backed efforts to deter voting on Saturday and Sunday.
The officials said the list of registered voters was inaccurate. More than 80 percent of the people who had died in the last two years remained on the list in some areas and in other places more than a third of the names of people who voted in the last election had been removed, they said.
Furthermore, opposition officials ruling party militias bases were located next to polling places in some districts, increasing chances of violence against opposition supporters.
The Movement for Democratic Change has accused the government of waging a campaign of violence against opposition voters and of using new security laws to hinder the opposition campaign. Party officials said in the last few days 22 polling agents representing the opposition had been abducted by ruling party militiamen.
The opposition was scheduled Friday to appeal a presidential decree that restored electoral rules giving state election officers sweeping powers and placed restrictions on voting procedures and voter education.
The elections Saturday and Sunday are the most competitive since Mugabe led Zimbabwe to independence in 1980. Mugabe's popularity has crashed amid economic chaos and political violence mainly blamed on the ruling party.
Fears are widespread the race may be rigged. On Wednesday the government denied accreditation to most local independent poll observers and banned unofficial voter education.
By ANGUS SHAW Associated Press Writer
Copyright 2002 Associated Press, All rights reserved
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