Zimbabwe's opposition Movement for Democratic Change pre-empted the official result on Wednesday by declaring itself the winner of joint presidential and legislative elections. In a press conference in the capital Harare, MDC secretary general Tendai Biti said that its leader Morgan Tsvangirai had not only won more votes than veteran President Robert Mugabe but also passed the 50 percent threshold needed to avoid a potential run-off in three weeks' time.Biti said Tsvangirai had won 50.3 percent and Mugabe had won 43.8 percent. "That means he (Tsvangirai) is above the 50 percent threshold needed to avoid a run-off," Biti told reporters. "Put simply he has won this election ... Morgan Richard Tsvangirai is the next president of the Republic of Zimbabwe, without a run-off."
Biti said the party believed that the government was trying to massage the results and pointed to a front-page story in Wednesday's Herald newspaper that said there was now likely to be a run-off as neither man had a clear majority. "The state media has already begun to prepare the people for a run-off in 21 days ... If that is the position this party will contest the run-off," he added.
Biti also said that, based on its own calculations, the MDC had won a total of 110 seats, including 11 lawmakers who are part of a splinter faction. Mugabe's ZANU-PF party had won 96 out of the overall 210 seats, he added.
The party decided to release its own figures as the official electoral commission had so far failed to declare any results from the presidential election which took place on Saturday.
The commission has also yet to declare the final outcome of the parliamentary election which was held simultaneously.
The commission has been under growing pressure, including from foreign governments to declare the official results, with the opposition charging that the hold-up is designed to buy time for Mugabe to fix the outcome.