|
 HARARE, Zimbabwe (AP) - President Robert Mugabe's political party clinched a parliamentary majority Friday, but the opposition said the vote was stolen and urged Zimbabweans to protest the outcome.
Mugabe, one of Africa's longest serving leaders and the last on the continent who has ruled his country since the departure of a colonial power, had hoped Thursday's poll would give a stamp of legitimacy to his increasingly isolated and autocratic regime. But Western diplomats and independent rights groups said it was skewed by Mugabe's long history of violence.
U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said the election was neither free nor fair, charging the "playing field was heavily tilted in the government's favor."
|