JOHANNESBURG, South Africa - Less than a week before Zimbabwe's presidential election, the campaign of opposition candidate Morgan Tsvangirai would appear to be in shambles. He has been charged with high treason - a crime punishable by death - for an alleged plot to assassinate President Robert G. Mugabe. His supporters have been beaten up by mobs. Police officers have shot at his motorcade.
But first as a labor leader and now as a political candidate, Tsvangirai (CHAN-ger-i) is one of the few Zimbabweans who has been able to stand up to Mugabe's regime. He has criticized corruption, brought the country to a standstill with national strikes and nettled Mugabe with his growing popularity.
Tsvangirai has paid dearly for his exploits. He has been detained or jailed by the government at least a half-dozen times, once spending six weeks in prison on suspicion that he was a South African spy. He has survived three assassination attempts, including one in 1997 when assailants attacked him in his 10th-floor office and tried to throw him out the window.
Tsvangirai wants to be Zimbabwe's next president. In the 22 years since the country gained full independence, only Mugabe has held the office.
Tsvangirai poses the greatest threat to him. Tsvangirai's party, the Movement for Democratic Change, won nearly half the elected seats in parliamentary elections in 2000, ushering in an era of multiparty democracy. A recent poll by the Financial Gazette of Harare found people surveyed favor Tsvangirai to Mugabe 52.9 percent to 47.1 percent. A second poll also put Tsvangirai ahead, although most of the respondents chose not to answer, saying their vote was their secret. As Tsvangirai's chances for victory have increased, so has the incidence of government-sponsored violence and intimidation against his supporters.
Mugabe ridicules Tsvangirai as a sellout to white imperialists, a "teaboy" to British Prime Minister Tony Blair and a terrorist.
The government's efforts to taunt the opposition were at work again last week, the MDC said, when police charged Tsvangirai and two party members with treason in an alleged plot to kill Mugabe.
The charges are based on a secretly recorded videotape, aired on Australian TV, allegedly showing Tsvangirai and members of a Canadian political consulting firm discussing plans to assassinate Mugabe.
Tsvangirai has denied any wrongdoing, saying the videotape had been doctored to incriminate him.
