VOA常速英语2008年-Zimbabwe's Ruling Party Loses its Majority in P

By Peta Thornycroft
Harare
02 April 2008

Zimbabwe's ruling ZANU-PF party has lost its majority in parliament according to the latest official result from the Zimbabwe Election Commission. And, as Peta Thornycroft reports for VOA from Harare, this news follows an earlier announcement from the opposition¹ Movement for Democratic Change that it believes its candidate, Morgan Tsvangirai, has won more than 50 percent of the vote in the presidential race.

 

The Zimbabwe Election Commission's latest results indicate that the MDC and its allies will have an historic, small, parliamentary majority. ZANU-PF has held the majority in parliament since independence from Britain in 1980.

But this news was pre-empted by the opposition Movement for Democratic Change, which in a media conference announced that its tally², which it says coincides with that of the independent Zimbabwe Election Support Network, shows that its presidential candidate Tsvangirai got 50.3 percent of the vote. So far there is no official tally of votes cast in the race for president.

If the MDC tally of the presidential race is correct, this would mean that Tsvangirai has won an outright³ victory over the 84-year-old incumbent⁴, President Robert Mugabe.

MDC Secretary General Tendai Biti says this means there should be no need for a run-off in the presidential race which would have to take place in 21 days from when the result is officially announced. But he said Tsvangirai would be willing to contest a run-off, if the Commission insists one is required.

"A runoff in 21 days," said Biti. "That is what the law says. If that is the case, without prejudice to our position this party will contest the runoff, but we would have hoped for a situation that there will be a conceding of the result for a number of reasons, and the number of reasons being that it is unlikely that the people's will, will in any way be reversed in that run-off. If anything, there will actually be an embarrassing margin⁵ in favor of the opposition in the runoff. There is no question about that.

Biti said he hopes President Mugabe will realize that any run-off would deliver him a smashing defeat.

He adds that the party's assessment⁶ of the election results are based on actual votes cast, counted and verified by the Zimbabwe Election Commission at each individual polling station. But he notes that there are some outstanding results which have not yet been released.

Political analysts⁷ say the margins⁸ are so narrow that the MDC might be forced to accept a run-off because disputes about even one or two voting stations could significantly change the overall percentages.

Biti said the margin of error was very small, adding that his party has already called for verification of the officially announced results at some polling stations because of discrepancies⁹ with its own records.

Meanwhile the ruling ZANU-PF has described the MDC's tally of the presidential race as "wishful". Party spokesman Bright Matonga said no party could decide the winner but suggested ZANU-PF has accepted there might be a run-off for the presidential election.

The elections last Saturday were for four contests, the presidency¹⁰, parliament, senate and local government.

1 opposition   

n.反对，敌对

参考例句：

• The party leader is facing opposition in his own backyard.该党领袖在自己的党內遇到了反对。
• The police tried to break down the prisoner's opposition.警察设法制住了那个囚犯的反抗。

2 tally   

n.计数器，记分，一致，测量；vt.计算，记录，使一致；vi.计算，记分，一致

参考例句：

• Don't forget to keep a careful tally of what you spend.别忘了仔细记下你的开支账目。
• The facts mentioned in the report tally to every detail.报告中所提到的事实都丝毫不差。

3 outright   

adv.坦率地；彻底地；立即；adj.无疑的；彻底的

参考例句：

• If you have a complaint you should tell me outright.如果你有不满意的事，你应该直率地对我说。
• You should persuade her to marry you outright.你应该彻底劝服她嫁给你。

4 incumbent   

adj.成为责任的，有义务的；现任的，在职的

参考例句：

• He defeated the incumbent governor by a large plurality.他以压倒多数票击败了现任州长。
• It is incumbent upon you to warn them.你有责任警告他们。

5 margin   

n.页边空白；差额；余地，余裕；边，边缘

参考例句：

• We allowed a margin of 20 minutes in catching the train.我们有20分钟的余地赶火车。
• The village is situated at the margin of a forest.村子位于森林的边缘。

6 assessment   

n.评价；评估；对财产的估价，被估定的金额

参考例句：

• This is a very perceptive assessment of the situation.这是一个对该情况的极富洞察力的评价。
• What is your assessment of the situation?你对时局的看法如何？

7 analysts   

分析家，化验员( analyst的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• City analysts forecast huge profits this year. 伦敦金融分析家预测今年的利润非常丰厚。
• I was impressed by the high calibre of the researchers and analysts. 研究人员和分析人员的高素质给我留下了深刻印象。

8 margins   

边( margin的名词复数 )； 利润； 页边空白； 差数

参考例句：

• They have always had to make do with relatively small profit margins. 他们不得不经常设法应付较少的利润额。
• To create more space between the navigation items, add left and right margins to the links. 在每个项目间留更多的空隙，加左或者右的margins来定义链接。

9 discrepancies   

n.差异，不符合（之处），不一致（之处）( discrepancy的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• wide discrepancies in prices quoted for the work 这项工作的报价出入很大
• When both versions of the story were collated,major discrepancies were found. 在将这个故事的两个版本对照后，找出了主要的不符之处。 来自《简明英汉词典》

10 presidency   

n.总统(校长，总经理)的职位(任期)

参考例句：

• Roosevelt was elected four times to the presidency of the United States.罗斯福连续当选四届美国总统。
• Two candidates are emerging as contestants for the presidency.两位候选人最终成为总统职位竞争者。