On Thursday night, police arrested more than 300 women dancing and singing at a prayer vigil in a downtown park. Police beat many of the protesters with batons, witnesses said. The women were released Friday after paying modest fines. Twenty of the women were taken to the hospital to be treated for injuries.
Magodonga Mahlangu, 31, an unemployed track coach from Bulawayo who said she was among those beaten, said the MDC should adopt the tactics of civil disobedience. "The power of the people is mass action and nothing else," she said. "We have to be nonviolent, but on the street."
Supporters of President Robert Mugabe's ruling party carry a mock coffin representing the opposition movement, while celebrating the party's apparent victory in legislative elections. The party won enough seats to secure approval of a rewritten constitution.
(Howard Burditt -- Reuters)
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| ___ Photo Gallery ___  Zimbabwe Elections
Zimbabweans went to the polls Thursday in an election largely free from violence but not from fear.
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_____Zimbabwe's Election_____
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Questions and Answers
_____Washington Post Coverage_____
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In Zimbabwe, an Irregular But Less Violent Election (The Washington Post, Apr 1, 2005)
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In Zimbabwe, 'There's No Reason to Be Scared' (The Washington Post, Mar 31, 2005)
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In Zimbabwe, Withholding of Food Magnifies the Hunger for Change (The Washington Post, Mar 30, 2005)
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An Outcast Plots Return In Zimbabwe (The Washington Post, Mar 26, 2005)
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A protest organizer, Jenni Williams, said of opposition leaders: "They don't want to go and get themselves dirty in police cells. . . . That's the problem with most of the MDC leadership."
The United States, the European Union and international human rights groups have denounced the election process as seriously tilted in favor of the ruling party, which controls every daily newspaper, all broadcasting outlets, the military, the police force and the electoral mechanisms.
And although reports of violent attacks were down from past elections, there were frequent reports of intimidation and of ruling party members using the nation's dwindling stocks of food to reward supporters and punish opponents in a drought-ridden country. Many opposition voters spoke openly about their political preferences but said they feared violent retribution if their names were published.
Among the surprising gains by Mugabe's party was a precinct in southern Harare, an opposition stronghold. In redrawing the nation's parliamentary boundaries, many urban districts were expanded to include rural areas, where the ruling party is strongest. The southern Harare district was redrawn to include an area settled almost entirely by ruling party activists who were given land through Mugabe's chaotic and often-violent land redistribution, which targeted white-owned commercial farms.
A group of youths there said Friday that the transfer of land earned Mugabe their enduring loyalty. They defended the conduct of the elections, saying the growing condemnation of the vote was off base.
"It's wrong," said Munyaradzi Ndlovu, 21, who got a small farm. "These elections are free and fair."
At a shopping center close by, Andrew Mutamba, 35, a hardware salesman, said some of the ruling party victories in rural areas likely resulted from rigging. In his visits to those areas, he said, the opposition seemed stronger.
Mutamba also said he would join a demonstration -- and risk beatings or arrest -- if Tsvangirai called for protests.
"Freedom doesn't come easy," Mutamba said.
