Zimbabwe opposition presses victory claim
HARARE —
Zimbabwe’s opposition on Saturday reiterated claims of an outright election victory against President Robert Mugabe, saying a run-off was “unnecessary,” as tensions in the country mounted.
“We are convinced that the run-off is unnecessary,” Thokozani Khupe, deputy leader of the Movement for Democratic Change, told reporters after a meeting of senior party members in the capital Harare.
But Khupe also appeared to leave open the possibility of a second round, saying: “In the unlikely event of a run-off, the MDC will once again romp to victory by an even bigger margin.”
The party’s candidate, Morgan Tsvangirai, was in neighboring South Africa from where he has pushed for Mugabe to step down. He took part in the talks via a video link-up, said party spokesman George Sibotshiwe.
Last month, Justice Minister Patrick Chinamasa accused Tsvangirai of treason.
Tsvangirai was to make a formal announcement on Monday and the national council, the party’s main policy body, was to meet “within days,” party spokesmen said, without giving further details.
Election officials on Friday said there was no outright winner of the March 29 election, with Tsvangirai getting 47.9% and Mugabe getting 43.2%. They called a run-off between the two at a date yet to be announced.
The run-off has to take place within 21 days of publication of the results.
It is an unprecedented development for a country where the 84-year-old Mugabe has had a stranglehold on power since independence in 1980. Officials from Mugabe’s party have said he will contest the run-off.
Ahead of the announcement of the results, Tsvangirai said that there was “no need for a run-off” but he has also said previously that he could take part in a second round if international observers were present.
Observers from the Southern African Development Community (SADC), an influential 14-state regional organization, monitored the elections but Western observers were banned by the authorities.
Political analysts say former trade union boss Tsvangirai, 56, has no real option but to contest the run-off as a refusal to take part would automatically hand victory to his longtime rival Mugabe.
Tsvangirai has been a thorn in the side of Mugabe since the 1990s. He has faced charges of treason and was given a brutal beating by police last year. In 2002, he accused Mugabe of rigging his way to victory against him.
The stand-off in Zimbabwe has been accompanied by a wave of political violence in rural areas that human rights groups and the MDC say are aimed at forcing people to vote for Mugabe in a second round.
In the latest sign of tensions, MDC spokesman Nelson Chamisa on Saturday said the party had contacted police after receiving reports from security service sources about an assassination plot against top party members.
Police could not immediately be contacted to verify the claim.
U.N. chief Ban Ki-moon earlier warned of “a serious humanitarian crisis” in Zimbabwe and the U.N. children’s agency UNICEF has said it is providing emergency assistance to 1,500 people displaced by the violence.
A lawyer said on Saturday that the authorities have released on bail six opposition activists and a journalist arrested for political attacks but that more than 20 other opposition supporters remain behind bars.
Meanwhile, international powers have questioned the credibility of results released nearly five weeks after voting day but have said a run-off could take place if the violence is stopped and international observers are allowed in.
Mugabe, a hero of the 1970s war against white minority rule in the then Rhodesia, has condemned foreign interference and has accused Britain, Zimbabwe’s former colonial master, of imperial designs.
AFP
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unscrejects
How indeed do we call this one? The usual suspects blasted the elections as rigged. Their horse came out in front and now the polls were regular. The African observors who said they saw nothing wrong during the polling were called Mugabe supporters. Now the same Africans are blasted for not calling the same elections free and fair now. No wonder my country is in such a mess.
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realist
If the opposition won the majority vote, why do the need a "run-off?" It is time for the evil Mugabe to go - and go now. After that he should be arressted and brought before the Internation Courts, just like Saddam Hussein was, for his crimes against humanity.
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frontandcentre
If Mugabe had even an ounce of decency in his body, he would resign and give his country the opportunity to start to re-build after the disaster that has been his recent tenure in Zimbabwe. Unfortunately he hasn't - he is a crazy old man determined to cling on to his position at any cost. One does wonder what the remaining attraction is to be the top man in charge of a country that you've personally ruined and the vast majority of whose people would be dancing for joy if you died, but I suppose he feels he has no alternative but to finish the job. Yes, his legacy in the history books will be that he took one of the most prosperous countries in Africa, at a time when prices for its main exports were starting to rise, and single-handedly turned it into an economic basket case, even by modern African standards. He will be regarded FOREVER not as a hero of the independence movement - as he wishes to be - but as someone who inflicted far, far more suffering and impoverishment on his own country than any colonial power ever did
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