Call-up for election
Socialist Press1979 1979-04-21Read it in the scan (PDF), scan page 2 →
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As the Smith regime in Zimbabwe prepares the farce of elections under the "internal settlement". , their forces launched a vicious attack on guerrilla bases near the Zambian capital of Lusaka.
A reported 350 people were killed. Several days later racist troops destroyed the HQ and home of ZAPU leader Joshua Nkomo in a raid inside Lusaka itself.
These desperate measures are designed both to indicate the continued resiliance of the internal settlement, and to head off plans by the Patriotic Front to disrupt the elections.
The voting itself. has been held in two stages.
The whites, coloureds and Asians voted last week; the biack Africans vote this week.
The plans laid under the internal settlement provide for the election of a 100 member assembly.
Twenty places have been reserved for whites directly elected and, as only in four of these were Smith's Rhodesian Front candidates opposed (by little-known independent candidates), it was only for these four places that elections took place last Tuesday.
The elections for seventy two places will last from Tuesday until Saturday of this week (April 17-21).
A massive security operation, involving the call-up of whites between the age of 18 and 50, is being mounted to defend the 2,000 polling booths.
Arrests, It is also reported that a large number of arrests are taking place.
The country has been divided up into eight' constituencies, each of which has been given a stated number of seats, and voting will be by proportional representation.
Five black parties-the United African National Council (of Bishop Muzorewa); ZANU lof Ndabaningi Sithole); ZUPO (of Chief Jeremiah Chirau); the United National Federal Party (of Chief Ndiweni) and the small National Democratic Union-are contesting the The remaining eight seats are also white only and will be contested by 16 Rhodesian Front nominees.
The eight to take these seats will be selected by the 92 directly elected MPs.
The agreed constitution provides for one cabinet seat for every five MP's and thus Smith can count on at least five seats in the new government.
As we have reported previously the control of the security forces and top civil service jobs will remain in white hands-through the device of the qualifications necessary for these top jobs.
Whatever happens in these elections the task will remain to throw out Smith and all his black collaborators.
The Tories have indictated that they will recognise the government elected in Labour Party member and trade unionists must remember that despite its verbal opposition to the internal settlement, the Labour government has done everything in its power to bring Nkomo and Mugabe to the conference table to organise a sell-out deal with Smith.
The rank and file in the Patriotic Front whether in Mugabe's ZANU or Nkomo's ZAPU must watch out for such moves by their leaders and demand the pressing forward of the struggle to destroy the internal settlement and establish an independent socialist
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SOCIALIST PRESS. Wednesdar 18 April, 1979 INTERNATIONAL Pase 3 CP capitulates to Catholics And then Berlinguer returned to ciose the Congress by agreeing with everything that had been said.
The real and growing tensions in the party remained largely hidden. But no-one doubted their existence. They showed for instance in the party's admission that in the last year it had lost 24,000 members after many years of continuous growth.