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New Zimbabwe video shows election rigging

05/07/2008

A video smuggled from Zimbabwe by an opposition supporter shows serious faults in last month's presidential run-off, which was won by Robert Mugabe.

The ten-minute film, made for the Guardian newspaper by Shepherd Yuda, 36, who says he has never voted for Mr Mugabe's party, consists of secretly filmed footage inside a prison in the southern African country as well as interviews of citizens.

Footage was shot in the days prior to the country's presidential run-off which Mugabe won easily after his only opponent Morgan Tsvangirai dropped out of the contest claiming a government campaign of intimidation against opposition activists.

The film shows how Mr Yuda, who was in prison at the time, was asked to cast his vote while being watched by a war veteran, who was linked to the ruling Zanu-PF party.

It also contains footage of people being asked to vote by postal ballot and reveal their voting identification numbers to the election officer in the film, who stood inches away from the ballot box and could see how people had voted.

The film also shows a rally at the prison in which attendees were told to vote for the ruling party and informed that a vote for the opposition would be worthless as Mr Tsvangirai would not be allowed to rule.

Mr Yuda, who is now in exile in another country, spoke about the climate during the election: "I had never seen that kind of violence before. How can a government that claimed to be democratically elected kill its people, murder its people, torture its people?" he added.

The European Union has called the election a "sham" while the UK has also said the result of the polls should be rejected.

The US has said it will table a United Nations resolution calling for sanctions against the country which has been led by Mr Mugabe since it won independence from Britain 28 years ago.