The Rocky Mountain Collegian

Issue date: 8/27/08 Section: News

Zimbabwe's supporters of the opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC), and Zanu PF supporters, sing and dance as they watch their party legislators enter parliament, during the opening ceremony in Harare, Zimbabwe, Tuesday. Opposition legislators heckled, jeered and sang loudly as Mugabe addressed the opening of the first Zimbabwean parliament in which the opposition outnumbered the veteran ruler's legislators. (AP Photo)

HARARE, Zimbabwe - Zimbabwe's opposition heckled Robert Mugabe in an unprecedented show of defiance when the president opened parliament Tuesday with traditional pomp and his familiar denunciations of the West.

Mugabe arrived in an open-topped vintage Rolls Royce escorted by mounted police wearing pith helmets and carrying lances.

Legislators from the Movement for Democratic Change, who wrested control of the house from him for the first time since independence in 1980, refused to stand when Mugabe entered, and shouted his party "is rotten!"

The jeers occasionally drowned out his 30-minute speech that was broadcast live on national television.

Mugabe had to raise his voice and, looking annoyed, raced through the final lines.

Tuesday's tension may be a glimpse into a future of bitter debates and close votes once parliament gets down to work in October.

Mugabe's Zanu PF party had held a parliamentary majority since 1980.

Morgan Tsvangirai's Movement for Democratic Change won 100 seats in the 210-seat legislature in March elections - though only 99 of its members were able to take the oath of office Monday, after one was arrested as he tried to enter parliament.

Mugabe's party won 99 seats in March and a splinter opposition faction won 10. An independent who broke away from Mugabe's party has the remaining seat.

In parliament Monday, Lovemore Moyo of the Movement for Democratic Change won the race for speaker by 110 votes to 98.

The ballot was secret, but Moyo apparently got votes from both Mugabe's party and the splinter faction to win a post that puts him in charge of parliament's debate and schedule and gives him the power to appoint committee chairmen.

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