HARARE: Zimbabwe’s rival presidential candidates both claimed Tuesday they were heading for election victory, setting up a tense count in the country’s first vote since the ouster of longtime ruler Robert Mugabe.
President Emmerson Mnangagwa said his ruling ZANU-PF party was receiving “extremely positive” data, while opposition leader Nelson Chamisa said the MDC party was “winning resoundingly.”
The claims pointed to a contested result in the historic election, raising the prospect of competing fraud allegations and a possible run-off vote in September — required if no candidate wins at least 50 percent of ballots in the first round.
ZANU-PF has held an iron grip on power in Zimbabwe since independence from British colonial rule in 1980, and victory for the opposition would be a major upset.
Analysts have said it was unclear whether the country’s military generals, who ousted Mugabe and ushered Mnangagwa to office last year, would accept a win by the Movement for Democratic Change.
Defeat for the ruling party would likely lead “to a denunciation of the election by the Mnangagwa administration and the potential for the military to intervene to secure power for ZANU-PF,” the London-based BMI risk consultancy said.
“I am scared — is there going to be unrest?” Stone Sibanda, a 39-year-old taxi driver in Harare, told AFP. “It is a very sensitive moment. Everyone is anxious.
Estimated turnout was around 75 percent before polls closed on Monday evening after a peaceful day of voting.
Early results from the elections — presidential, parliamentary and local — are expected Tuesday, and full results are due by Saturday.
At one polling station in the capital Harare, officials counted large piles of ballots using gas lanterns and candles late into the night on Monday.
If required, Zimbabwe’s 5.6 million registered voters would be asked to return to the polls to vote in a presidential run-off on September 8.
But Mnangagwa, 75, Mugabe’s former right-hand man, was confident of an outright first-round win.
“The information from our reps on the ground is extremely positive! Waiting patiently for official results as per the constitution,” Mnangagwa said on Twitter.
Chamisa, 40, who raised allegations of voter fraud repeatedly during the campaign, was equally buoyant, saying that his MDC was ready to form the next government.
“Winning resoundingly... We’ve done exceedingly well,” he said on Twitter.
Zimbabwe’s much-criticized election authority declared Tuesday that the vote had been free of rigging — even though the count was not yet completed.
“We are absolutely confident there was no rigging... we at the Zimbabwean Election Commission will not steal (the people’s) choice of leaders, we will not subvert their will,” said ZEC chair Priscilla Chigumba.
Mugabe, 94, whose authoritarian 37-year regime held power through violent, fraud-riddled elections, voted in Harare alongside his wife Grace after a surprise press conference at his home on Sunday at which he called for voters to reject ZANU-PF.
Once-banned European Union election observers, present for the first time in years, said participation appeared high but warned of possible problems in the polling process.
“There are shortcomings that we have to check. We don’t know yet whether it was a pattern or whether it was a question of bad organization in certain polling stations,” the EU’s chief observer Elmar Brok told AFP on Monday.
The bloc will deliver a preliminary report on the conduct of the election on Wednesday, as will the Southern African Development Community (SADC) and the African Union teams.
Mnangagwa was the clear election front-runner, benefitting from tacit military support, loyal state media and ruling party controls of government resources.
But Chamisa, a young lawyer and pastor who performed strongly on the campaign trail, sought to tap into the huge youth vote.
The new government must tackle mass unemployment and an economy shattered by the seizure of white-owned farms under Mugabe, the collapse of agriculture, hyperinflation and an investment exodus.
Previously solid health and education services are in ruins, and millions have fled abroad to seek work.
Both candidates had vowed to clean up government and attract foreign investment to create jobs after the isolation and systematic corruption of the Mugabe era.
In 2008, then opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai pulled out of the presidential run-off against Mugabe after attacks orchestrated by the state claimed the lives of at least 200 of his supporters.
Tense count as Zimbabwe rivals claim election victory
Tense count as Zimbabwe rivals claim election victory
- Counting was under way after a strong turnout in Zimbabwe’s first election since long-ruling leader Mugabe was ousted
- Officials overseeing the polls estimated that average turnout was around 75 percent
Zelensky says NATO offer for Ukraine-controlled territory could end ‘hot stage’ of war
- “You can’t give an invitation to just one part of a country,” the Ukrainian president said
- “So legally, by law, we have no right to recognize the occupied territory as territory of Russia”
KYIV: An offer of NATO membership to territory under Kyiv’s control would end “the hot stage of the war” in Ukraine, but any proposal to join the military alliance should be extended to all parts of the country that fall under internationally recognized borders, President Volodymyr Zelensky said in a broadcast interview.
Zelensky’s remarks on Friday signaled a possible way forward to the difficult path Ukraine faces to future NATO membership. At their summit in Washington in July, the 32 members declared Ukraine on an “irreversible” path to membership. However, one obstacle to moving forward has been the view that Ukraine’s borders would need to be clearly demarcated before it could join so that there can be no mistaking where the alliance’s pact of mutual defense would come into effect.
“You can’t give an invitation to just one part of a country,” the Ukrainian president said in an excerpt of the interview with Sky News, dubbed by the UK broadcaster. “Why? Because thus you would recognize that Ukraine is only that territory of Ukraine and the other one is Russia.”
Under the Ukrainian constitution, Ukraine cannot recognize territory occupied by Russia as Russian.
“So legally, by law, we have no right to recognize the occupied territory as territory of Russia,” he said.
Since the start of the war in 2022, Russia has been expending huge amounts of weaponry and human life to make small-but-steady territorial gains to the nearly one-fifth of Ukraine it already controls in east and southern Ukraine.
“If we want to stop the hot stage of the war, we should take under the NATO umbrella the territory of Ukraine that we have under our control. That’s what we need to do, fast. And then Ukraine can get back the other part of its territory diplomatically,” he said.
An invitation for Ukraine to join NATO is one key point of Zelensky’s “victory plan”, which he presented to Western allies and the Ukrainian people in October. The plan is seen as a way for Ukraine to strengthen its hand in any negotiations with Moscow.
Earlier this week, NATO’s new Secretary General Mark Rutte said that the alliance “needs to go further” to support Ukraine in its fight against a Russian invasion. Military aid to Kyiv and steps toward ending the war are expected to be high on the agenda when NATO members’ foreign ministers meet in Brussels for a two-day gathering starting on December 3.
However, any decision for Ukraine to join the military alliance would require a lengthier process and the agreement of all member states.
There is also uncertainty as to the foreign policy stance of President-elect Donald Trump. While Trump vowed on the campaign trail to end Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in a single day, he has not publicly discussed how this could happen. Trump also announced Wednesday that Keith Kellogg, an 80-year-old, highly decorated retired three-star general, would serve as his special envoy for Ukraine and Russia.
In April, Kellog wrote that “bringing the Russia-Ukraine war to a close will require strong, America First leadership to deliver a peace deal and immediately end the hostilities between the two warring parties.”
Meanwhile, during his only campaign debate with Vice President Kamala Harris, Trump twice refused to directly answer a question about whether he wanted Ukraine to win the war — raising concerns that Kyiv could be forced to accept unfavorable terms in any negotiations.
Zelensky’s statement comes as Ukraine faces increasing pressure along the 1,000-kilometer (620-mile) frontline. In its latest report, the Washington-based think tank the Institute for the Study of War said Saturday that Russian forces had recently advanced near Kupiansk, in Toretsk, and near Pokrovsk and Velyka Novosilka, a key logistics route for the Ukrainian military.
Ukraine’s air force announced Saturday that the country had come under attack from ten Russian drones, of which eight were shot down over the Kyiv, Cherkasy, Kirovohrad, Dnipropetrovsk, and Kherson regions. One drone returned to Russian-occupied territory, while the final drone disappeared from radar, often a sign of the use of electronic defenses.
Meanwhile, the Russian Defense Ministry said that 11 Ukrainian drones had been shot down by the country’s air defense systems. Both the mayor of Sochi, Andrey Proshunin, and the head of Russia’s Dagestan region, Sergey Melikov, both in Russia’s southwest, said that drones had been destroyed in their regions overnight. No casualties were reported.
On Friday, the Ukrainian president announced a number of changes to military leadership, saying that changes in personnel management were needed to improve the situation on the battlefield.
General Mykhailo Drapatyi, who led the defense of Kharkiv during Russia’s new offensive on Ukraine’s second-largest city this year, was appointed the new head of Ukraine’s Ground Forces. Oleh Apostol was named as the new Deputy Commander-in-Chief responsible for improving military training.
Commander-in-Chief Oleksandr Syrskyi also announced Friday that he would bolster units in Donetsk, Pokrovsk and Kurakhove with additional reserves, ammunition, weapons and military equipment.
North Korean leader calls for expanding his nuclear forces in the face of alleged US threats
- Kim Jong Un condemns the US for updating its nuclear deterrence strategies with South Korea
- He also criticized American support of Ukraine against a prolonged Russian invasion
At a conference with army officials on Friday, Kim condemned the United States for updating its nuclear deterrence strategies with South Korea and solidifying three-way military cooperation involving Japan, which he portrayed as an “Asian NATO” that was escalating tensions and instability in the region.
Kim also criticized the United States over its support of Ukraine against a prolonged Russian invasion. He insisted that Washington and its Western allies were using Ukraine as their “shock troops” to wage a war against Moscow and expand the scope of US military influence, the North’s official Korean Central News Agency said.
Kim has prioritized his country’s ties to Russia in recent months, embracing the idea of a “new Cold War” and displaying a united front in Russian President Vladimir Putin’s broader conflicts with the West.
He has used Russia’s war on Ukraine as a distraction to accelerate the development of his nuclear-armed military, which now has various nuclear-capable systems targeting South Korea and intercontinental ballistic missiles that can potentially reach the US mainland.
Kim has yet to directly acknowledge that he has been providing military equipment and troops to Russia to support its war against Ukraine and the KCNA’s report didn’t mention whether Kim made any comments toward Trump, whose election win has yet to be reported in the North’s state media.
Kim met Trump three times in 2018 and 2019 in Trump’s first presidency, but their diplomacy quickly collapsed over disagreements in exchanging the release of US-led sanctions and North Korean steps to wind down its nuclear and missile program. North Korea has since suspended any meaningful talks with Washington and Seoul as Kim ramped up his testing activity and military demonstrations in the face of what he portrayed as “gangster-like US threats.” There’s concern in Seoul that Kim in exchange for his military support of Russia would receive Russian technology in return to further develop his arsenal.
Trump’s election win has touched off speculation about a resumption of a summit-driven diplomacy with Kim, which was described by critics as a “bromance.” But some experts say a quick return to 2018 is highly unlikely, as too much has changed about the regional security situation and broader geopolitics since then.
While the North Korean nuclear problem was relatively an independent issue during Trump’s first term, it is now connected with broader challenges created by Russia’s war on Ukraine and further complicated by weakened sanctions enforcement against Pyongyang, Hwang Ildo, a professor at South Korea’s National Diplomatic Academy, wrote in a study last week.
North Korea’s nuclear and missile program is now much more advanced, which would increase Kim’s perception of his bargaining powers. Kim’s efforts to boost North Korea’s presence in a united front against Washington could also gain strength if Trump spikes tariffs and rekindles a trade war with China, the North’s main ally and economic lifeline, Hwang said.
Amid the stalemate in larger nuclear negotiations with Washington, Kim has been dialing up pressure on South Korea, abandoning his country’s long-standing goal of inter-Korean reconciliation and verbally threatening to attack the South with nukes if provoked.
Kim has also engaged in psychological and electronic warfare against South Korea, such as flying thousands of balloons to drop trash in the South and disrupting GPS signals from border areas near the South’s biggest airport.
South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff said North Korea again flew trash-laden balloons toward the South early Monday and issued a statement warning the North “not to test our military’s patience any further.” The North has launched about 7,000 balloons toward the South since May, causing property damage but so far no injuries. On at least two occasions, trash carried by North Korea’s balloons fell on Seoul’s presidential compound, raising concerns about the vulnerability of key sites.
Prime Minister says Georgia will not allow revolution in face of pro-EU protests
- Kobakhidze’s Georgian Dream party said on Thursday that it was halting European Union accession talks for the next four years over what it called “blackmail” of Georgia by the bloc
- The freezing of application talks has been met with widespread anger in the country
TBILISI: Georgian Prime Minister Irakli Kobakhidze said on Saturday that the state would not allow a revolution to take place, after protests against his government’s sudden freezing this week of Georgia’s EU accession process.
Kobakhidze’s Georgian Dream party said on Thursday that it was halting European Union accession talks for the next four years over what it called “blackmail” of Georgia by the bloc, abruptly reversing a long-standing national goal.
EU membership is overwhelmingly popular in Georgia, with opinion polls consistently showing strong public support.
The freezing of application talks has been met with widespread anger in the country, which has the aim of EU membership written into its constitution.
The prime minister accused opponents of the halt to EU accession of plotting a revolution, along the lines of Ukraine’s 2014 Maidan protest, which ousted a pro-Russian president.
“In Georgia, the Maidan scenario cannot be realized. Georgia is a state, and the state will not, of course, permit this,” Kobakhidze was quoted as saying by Georgian media.
The country’s interior ministry said on Saturday that it had detained 107 people in the capital city of Tbilisi overnight during a protest which saw demonstrators build barricades along the central Rustaveli Avenue, and throw fireworks at riot police, who used water cannon and tear gas to disperse them.
Fresh protests are planned for Saturday night.
Hundreds of employees of Georgia’s foreign, defense, justice and education ministries, along with the country’s central bank have signed open letters condemning the decision to freeze talks.
Khvicha Kvaratskhelia, a star of Georgia’s national soccer team spoke out in favor of the protesters.
“My country hurts, my people hurt — it’s painful and emotional to watch the videos that are circulating, stop the violence and aggression! Georgia deserves Europe today more than ever!” Kvaratskhelia wrote on Facebook on Saturday.
The halt to EU accession caps months of deteriorating relations between Georgian Dream, which has faced allegations of authoritarian and pro-Russian tendencies, and the West.
The party is dominated by Bidzina Ivanishvili, a billionaire ex-prime minister who has taken increasingly anti-Western positions.
Georgian Dream won almost 54 percent of the vote in an October election that opposition parties say was falsified.
Both the ruling party and Georgia’s electoral commission say the poll was free and fair. Western countries have called for an investigation into violations.
The EU had already said Georgia’s application was stalled over laws against “foreign agents” and LGBT rights that it has described as draconian and pro-Russian.
Meanwhile, Georgian Dream has moved to build ties with neighboring Russia, from which Georgia gained independence in 1991.
The two countries have no diplomatic ties since a brief war over a Moscow-backed rebel region in 2008, but restored direct flights in 2023, while Moscow lifted visa restrictions on Georgian nationals earlier this year.
Indigenous Australian lawmaker who heckled King Charles censured
- Independent senator Lidia Thorpe’s censure carries no practical punishment but passed the Senate Monday with 46 votes in favor and 12 against
The censure carries no practical punishment but passed the Senate Monday with 46 votes in favor and 12 against.
During the king’s visit to parliament, independent senator Lidia Thorpe screamed: “This is not your land, you are not my king,” decrying what she said was a “genocide” of Indigenous Australians by European settlers.
She also turned her back on the king as dignitaries stood for the national anthem.
The censure motion condemned Thorpe’s actions as “disruptive and disrespectful.”
It also said the Senate no longer regarded it “appropriate” for Thorpe to be a member of any delegation “during the life of this parliament.”
A censure motion is a symbolic gesture when parliamentarians are dissatisfied with the behavior of one of their own.
Thorpe – sporting a gold chain with ‘Not My King’ around her neck – said she did not “give a damn” about the censure and would most likely use the document as “kindling” later in the week.
She told national broadcaster ABC she would “do it again” if the monarch returned.
“I will resist colonization in this country. I swear my allegiance to the real sovereigns of these lands: First Peoples are the real sovereigns,” she said.
Green Senator Mehreen Faruqi voted against Thorpe’s censure, saying the lawmaker was telling Australia’s history “the way she wants to.”
Thorpe is known for her attention-grabbing political stunts and fierce opposition to the monarchy.
When she was sworn into office in 2022, Thorpe raised her right fist as she begrudgingly swore to serve Queen Elizabeth II, who was then Australia’s head of state.
Australia was a British colony for more than 100 years, during which time thousands of Aboriginal Australians were killed and entire communities displaced.
The country gained de facto independence in 1901, but has never become a fully-fledged republic.
King Charles is the current head of state.
The issue of a republic reared its head during the king’s visit Down Under earlier this year, but the issue remains a political non-starter.
A recent poll showed about a third of Australians would like to ditch the monarchy, a third would keep it and a third are ambivalent.
In 1999, Australians narrowly voted against removing the queen, amid a row over whether her replacement would be chosen by members of parliament, not the public.
Bangladesh prepares to send Hajj pilgrims by sea after 40 years
- Bangladesh has been struggling to meet its Hajj pilgrim quota due to high airfares
- Travel by sea estimated to help decrease the cost of pilgrimage package by about $900
DHAKA: Bangladeshi authorities are preparing to resume sending Hajj pilgrims via the sea route, aiming to significantly reduce travel costs starting next year.
For the past few years, Bangladesh, one of the most populous Muslim-majority countries, has struggled to meet its Hajj quota, as fewer people have been able to afford the pilgrimage since international airfares surged after the COVID-19 pandemic.
The possibility of pilgrimage by sea was discussed during Bangladeshi Religious Affairs Adviser Khalid Hossain’s meeting with Saudi Hajj and Umrah Minister Dr. Tawfiq Al-Rabiah in Jeddah last month.
Dhaka’s envoy to the Kingdom, Brig. Gen. S.M. Rakibullah, told Arab News on Thursday that the first session on the logistics was set to take place next week.
“We have received confirmation from (the) Saudi authority regarding the transportation of pilgrims by sea. A coordination meeting on this issue will be held in Jeddah on the 3rd of December,” he said.
Targeting to start sending pilgrims by sea already during next year’s Hajj season — which will take place between June 4 and June 9 — Bangladeshi authorities are planning to reduce the cost of pilgrimage packages.
The price of the current 2025 package is about $4,000.
“We will declare a new Hajj package for the pilgrims who are interested in taking the sea route,” Matiul Islam, additional secretary at the Ministry of Religious Affairs, told Arab News.
“This new sea route will help us in fulfilling the Hajj quota ... Our assigned shipping company is working on sourcing the ship. If we get ship on time, there is no other problem at our end.”
Hajj travel by sea will take place for the first time in four decades.
“To the best of my knowledge, in 1984, Bangladeshi pilgrims traveled to the Kingdom by ship to perform the Hajj rituals for the last time,” Islam said.
Karnaphuli Ship Builders, the shipping company chosen by the Bangladeshi government to operate the route, expects that the new mode of transport will reduce the cost of the current pilgrimage package by more than 20 percent.
It plans to purchase a 32-story ship to carry pilgrims from the southern Bangladeshi port of Chottogram to Jeddah.
“The costs of the Hajj journey will be reduced by around $900,” said M.A. Rashid, the company’s managing director.
“We have already sourced a Caribbean cruise ... The ship will carry up to 3,000 pilgrims at a time. It will take eight days to reach from Chottogram Port to Jeddah.”
Last year, Saudi Arabia granted Bangladesh a quota of 127,000 pilgrims, but because of high inflation and the cost of flights to the Middle East, only 85,000 were able to embark on the spiritual journey that is one of the five pillars of Islam.
