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 JURU, Zimbabwe (AP) - The run-up to next week's parliamentary elections in Zimbabwe has been the least violent in decades, but the country's main opposition leader said Friday the vote will not be free and fair because of subtle intimidation and memories of brutality past.
Morgan Tsvangirai said his Movement for Democratic Change was nonetheless taking part in an attempt to find a solution to the economic and political crisis sparked five years ago, when the opposition movement seriously challenged President Robert Mugabe's party in the last race for the 150-seat parliament.
"The economy has collapsed by 50 percent over the past five years. There is massive unemployment, over 80 percent unemployment. The economic base, which is agriculture, has been destroyed," Tsvangirai said in an interview with The Associated Press after a campaign rally in this dusty township 35 miles northeast of the capital, Harare.
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