MDC strikers face heavy crackdown

Harare - Zimbabwe opposition supporters face the prospect of a heavy crackdown by security forces on Tuesday if they heed a call to launch a general strike to show their disgust at long-delayed election results.

Police had been deployed throughout the country in anticipation of the strike called by Morgan Tsvangirai's opposition in a bid to pressurise the country's electoral commission (ZEC) to release presidential election results.

Tsvangirai's Movement for Democratic Change had been accused by police of trying to cause mayhem with the strike, launched on the back of a failed court bid to force the release of the March 29 presidential poll.

National police spokesperson Wayne Bvudzijena said police had been deployed throughout the country and "those who breach the peace will be dealt with severely and firmly".

Unemployment 'running at 80%+'

He said: "The call by the MDC Tsvangirai faction is aimed at disturbing peace and will be resisted firmly by the law enforcement agents whose responsibility is to maintain law and order in any part of the country."

The impact of any general strike was likely to be muted as unemployment was already running at more than 80%.

Previous stay-aways called by the opposition and its allies in the Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions had flopped with few of the people still in work wanting to risk a day's pay.

However, the opposition was aware that President Robert Mugabe still exerted an iron grip over the security forces and was wary of sending its supporters on to the streets to protest the current impasse.

Police had banned all political rallies. In March last year, Tsvangirai sustained serious head injuries as the government cracked down on opposition attempts to stage an anti-government rally.

Election agent stabbed to death

Tensions had been steadily mounting in the southern African nation over the poll, which Tsvangirai said he won outright while Mugabe's ruling party was preparing for a run-off.

In a further sign of mounting unrest, the opposition claimed that one of its election agents had been stabbed to death by Mugabe supporters over the weekend in what it claimed was the first politically motivated killing since the polls.

Police confirmed that the agent, Tapiwa Mubwanda, had been killed but said the motive had yet to be established.

A petition by the MDC to get the high court to call for the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission to immediately declare the outcome was on Monday dismissed with costs by Judge Tendai Uchena.

This was a double blow to the opposition after a summit of southern African leaders in Zambia at the weekend merely called for results to be announced "expeditiously", without criticising the Zimbabwean government or Mugabe.