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Election protest lands opposition lawmaker in jail

A Movement for Democratic Change lawmaker was arrested over protests against the outcome of parliamentary elections, which the opposition party says were rigged.

Also Tuesday, farmers disappointed by low prices for their crops forced the early closure of the first day of Zimbabwe's annual tobacco sales.

Police spokesman Wayne Bvudzijena announced the arrest of MDC legislator Nelson Chamisa, the newly re-elected representative of the Harare suburb of Kuwadzana, on state radio.

Two youths were also detained for participating in a brief demonstration in Harare on Monday. Bvudzijena said five shops and a bank had been stoned during the protest.

"Police have assured the nation they will remain alert to ensure law and order in the country in the face of threats by the opposition to bring a reign of terror," Bvudzijena said.

Opposition spokesman Paul Themba Nyati was not aware of the arrests, and no further details of the incident were immediately available.

Several hundred opposition supporters ran through downtown Harare scattering leaflets Monday calling for mass protests against the outcome of Thursday's poll. Police deployed on rooftops and set up roadblocks at dawn Tuesday to prevent further demonstrations.

President Robert Mugabe's Zimbabwe African National Union-Patriotic Front claimed 78 of Parliament's 120 elected seats, compared to 41 for the opposition MDC. Mugabe's dismissed information minister, Jonathan Moyo, also picked up a seat on an independent ticket.

Mugabe appoints 30 additional lawmakers, giving his party the two-thirds majority he sought to secure his nearly 25-year rule and amend the Constitution at will.

Opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai has demanded a revote, saying huge inconsistencies in the results pointed to ballot stuffing.

Opposition leaders and independent rights groups said years of violence and intimidation skewed the poll in Mugabe's favor before the first ballot was cast -- a view echoed by Britain, the US and other Western observers.

However, neighboring African countries largely supportive of Mugabe declared the largely peaceful voting free and fair.

The country was plunged into political and economic turmoil when the government began seizing thousands of white-owned commercial farms for redistribution to black Zimbabweans after the last parliamentary election in 2000. The often violent campaign, coupled with years of drought, crippled the agriculture-based economy.

Since last week's poll, bread and maize meal have disappeared from Harare stores. The price of sugar, cooking oil and other basic commodities has surged by at least 25 percent, the state-run Herald newspaper reported Tuesday.

Commerce Minister Samuel Mumbengegwi blamed the developments on panic buying and accused shop owners of profiteering. He pledged the nation would not run out of food or fuel.

Meanwhile, noisy demonstrations broke out at the tobacco sales, where prices dropped to US$1.9 per kilogram from last year's average US$2.02. Police were not called, but the sales were cut short, said Rodney Ambrose of the Zimbabwe Tobacco Association.

Just 70 of the 500 bales on offer were sold.

"It was not really too good a start at all," Ambrose said.

This year's 64-million-kilogram crop was less than a quarter of that produced at its peak in the 1990s, when tobacco accounted for a quarter of Zimbabwe's export earnings.
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