Three die in Zimbabwe amid violent clash over ruling party election victory

  • 6 years ago
In Zimbabwe, at least three people are dead after the military opened fire on opposition rioters in the capital.
It looks like voters have returned a big majority for the ruling party in parliament -- no result yet in the presidential race.
But the opposition says the vote was rigged.
For more on this and other stories from around the world, we turn to our Oh Soo-young at the News Center.
Soo-young, it would appear that hopes for a peaceful election in Zimbabwe have been dashed.

Yes, the seemingly peaceful election proved to be the calm before the storm. Three people were killed on Wednesday, as opposition protestors and security forces clashed over the results of the recent parliamentary election.
The country's election commission said the ruling Zanu-PF party, headed by incumbent president Emmerson Mnangagwa, had won two-thirds of the seats in parliament.
This gave rise to fears that the vote had been rigged in favor of the ruling party, which has been in power since 1980,... under the rule of former leader Robert Mugabe.
As opposition supporters took to the streets of Harare, gunshots could be heard and the police and army reportedly used tear gas and a water cannon to break up the protest.
Several protestors also appeared to have been beaten up.
Authorities have blamed the opposition for causing the unrest, while the main opposition -- the Movement for Democratic Change -- said the protest hadn't been violent and that deploying the soldiers was uncalled for.
Party leader Nelson Chamisa has, in fact, claimed victory in the presidential election,... where he challenged Mnangagwa,... although the results haven't been released yet.
There could be more unrest to come, once the electoral committee declares the winning candidate sometime in the next few days.

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