HARARE, Zimbabwe — Opposition legislators jeered President Robert Mugabe on Tuesday as he opened Zimbabwe’s parliament, singing and chanting and sometimes drowning out his voice.
The rare show of defiance — broadcast live on national television — set the stage for a combative legislature, even as Mugabe and his political foes try to negotiate a power-sharing arrangement after disputed elections.
Mugabe’s speech could sometimes not be heard over the jeers of his opponents, who clapped and sang songs deriding him and the ZANU-PF. “ZANU is rotten. You are great liars,” they sang.
“We are tired of you,” they shouted.
Looking annoyed, Mugabe first raised his voice, then raced through the final lines of a speech railing against the West for sanctions it has imposed on people and companies linked to him, including travel bans and asset freezes.
With the country in economic free fall, the opposition Movement for Democratic Change has gained a strong following in recent years and this March clinched a parliamentary majority, posing the most serious threat yet to the 84-year-old leader’s decades-long rule.
Tuesday’s raucous session may be a glimpse into a future of bitter debates and close votes in parliament.
Opposition legislators also presented a petition Tuesday pointing out that the opening of the parliament was “a clear breach” of the agreement that led to power-sharing talks.
It called Mugabe “the illegitimate usurper of the people’s will.” The petition also condemned the arrests of opposition legislators. When parliamentarians reported Monday to be sworn in, two were arrested. A third opposition legislator who is on the team negotiating power-sharing was arrested at his home early Tuesday, the opposition reported.
Some 2,000 opposition activists remain jailed in Zimbabwe months after March 29 elections in which they garnered more votes than Mugabe and his party.
