Mugabe's opponents cry 'fix' as election results are revealed
Election officials in Zimbabwe finally unveiled the result of the month-old presidential ballot today, and were immediately accused of a fix.
The figures said although president Robert Mugabe lost to his rival Morgan Tsvangirai, the margin was not enough to avoid a second round run-off vote.
That puts Mugabe, who was unable to rig the first vote to win an outright majority, in exactly the position his supporters wanted.
Mr Tsvangirai’s MDC party says Mugabe has been using the time since the first vote on March 29 for a campaign of violence and intimidation to ensure he wins the second one.
The country’s Electoral Commission gave Mr Tsvangirai 47.9% of the vote and Mugabe 43.2%.
Under election law a candidate has to win more than 50% for outright victory.
“No candidate has received a majority of votes counted. A second election will be held at a date to be announced,” the commission said in a statement.
The MDC, who insist Mr Tsvangirai did win enough votes for victory declared: “We have been overruled. We are in dispute. It is not fair,”
Mr Tsvangirai said previously that he will not participate in any run-off. Even before the results were announced, his party challenged the process, citing 120,000 unaccounted votes that could prove he won outright.
“We just said to the electoral commission we’re not moving forward until we understand where these 120,000 votes came from,” a party spokesman said hours before the results were released.
He said the party, which says its calculations show Mr Tsvangirai won with 50.3% of the vote, anticipated needing another three or four days to examine the results as part of the verification process.
Human rights groups said post-election violence in Zimbabwe has made it unlikely a run-off could be free and fair.
Mugabe, who has been in power since Zimbabwe gained independence from Britain in 1980, has been accused of brutality and increasing autocracy.
But the main campaign issue for many had been the economic collapse of what had once been a regional breadbasket.
Mugabe has pledged to accept the verdict of any run-off vote and called on the opposition to do the same, Senegalese officials said.
Senegal’s foreign minister was in Zimbabwe this week to help mediate the country’s growing political crisis, meeting Mugabe for two hours yesterday.
Deputy Information Minister Bright Matonga said the Constitution requires a second round no sooner than 21 days from the announcement of the results.
