Militant supporters of Robert Mugabe descended on some of Zimbabwe’s last white-owned farms yesterday in an orchestrated campaign of intimidation designed to keep him in power.

The invasions, which sparked memories of the farm seizures that ultimately brought the economy to its knees, got under way as the ruling party and the Opposition both launched legal battles over the release of election results.

Lawyers for the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) appeared in court to press for the immediate release of presidential poll results, more than a week after the election. Mr Mugabe’s ruling Zanu (PF), meanwhile, hit back with a demand that results be withheld and a recount taken.

MDC leaders reacted with disbelief at the Zanu (PF) petition, questioning how the party could dispute results yet to be released. Zanu (PF) has already demanded a recount of 16 seats it lost in the parliamentary contest — enough to overturn the majority won by the Opposition in its shock victory.

The MDC believes its leader, Morgan Tsvangirai, won the presidential contest outright with more than 50 per cent, but on Friday Zanu (PF) paved the way for a second round run-off, when it endorsed Mr Mugabe for the fight. Fears that Mr Mugabe would launch a “dirty war” of violence and intimidation ahead of the vote materialised in southern Masvingo province on Saturday when drunken war veterans invaded six white-owned farms, ordering the farmers to leave.

A thousand veterans marched through Harare on Saturday in a show of force for Mr Mugabe, vowing to defend the country against a new “white invasion”. State media last week began a campaign claiming that ousted white farmers were returning in droves after Mr Mugabe’s apparent defeat. The feared mob of former bush guerrillas and young armed militia led the bloody takeover of white-owned farms beginning in 2000.

In Masvingo, state-run television filmed as livestock and farm machinery were looted and ranchers forced off the land. Attackers also forced owners and staff to flee Paynanda Lodge, a game lodge. Police later intervened, however, and persuaded them to leave, a sign that rank-and-file security forces may not be prepared to carry out Mr Mugabe’s will.

Senior security officials, many of whom are now the owners of confiscated farms, have backed Mr Mugabe’s bid to cling to power, fearful of their own future should the regime fall. But ordinary police and soldiers have seen their real incomes plummet as hyperinflation, now at an unofficial 250,000 per cent, takes grip, and may be less willing to shore up the regime.

In the northern town of Centenary, veterans were reportedly still laying siege to two white-owned farms. Hendrik Olivier, the head of the Commercial Farmers’ Union, said: “I’ve got one farmer and his wife with two children and people banging on windows, ululating and telling them to vacate.”

In Harare, the streets were almost deserted as MDC lawyers returned to the High Court to file an urgent suit seeking the immediate release of presidential election results, eight days after the polls. On Saturday a first attempt to file the case was thwarted when riot police barred the lawyers.

Foreign governments have joined the opposition clamour for the results to be released, as fears grow that the Electoral Commission is using the delay to massage the figures on Mr Mugabe’s orders. The judge, after hearing petitions from the MDC and the commission, said that she would issue her ruling today. But the state-run Sunday Mail, Zanu (PF)’s mouthpiece, announced yesterday that its officials would be seeking a recount of the presidential polls, claiming “miscalculations in the compilation of the result”.

The public posting of results from individual stations after the polls shut closed some of the better-worn avenues for vote rigging used by Zanu (PF) in the past. The MDC furiously rejected the recount demand, and retracted its willingness to take part in a second round run-off, fearful that the Government was plotting a campaign of terror to steal the vote.

Nelson Chamisa, the Opposition spokesman, told reporters that the Opposition had been contacted by sympathetic police alleging ballottampering efforts by the ruling party. Under current election law, any run-off must be held within three weeks of the original vote, but diplomats are fearful that Mr Mugabe plans to use special powers to delay the poll for up to three months, buying time to cow his opponents.

Mugabe's land grab

— 4,000 white-owned farms have been taken over since 2000

— 18 white farmers have been killed since the farm invasions began

— In 2007 one of the last remaining white farmers was strangled by intruders in what campaigners called a “political hit”

— An estimated 400 white farmers remain in Zimbabwe

— 44 per cent of land seized was being cultivated in 2005 and the remainder was lying fallow

— Maize production fell by 74 per cent between 1999 and 2004

Sources: Agencies; Times archive

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