President Robert Mugabe's ruling party demanded a vote recount and a further delay in the release of presidential election results, the state Sunday Mail newspaper reported, prompting outrage from the opposition party.Meanwhile, militant
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“How do you have a vote recount for a result that has not been announced? That is ridiculous,” said opposition spokesman Nelson Chamisa.
Good point
He accused the ruling ZANU-PF party of vote fraud, saying that police have told opposition leaders that the ruling party has been tampering with ballots since early last week. “These claims are totally unfounded and they are only meant to justify ZANU-PF's rigging,” he said.
The ruling party cited “errors and miscalculations in the compilation of the poll result” and asked the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission to defer announcement of the presidential election results because of the “anomalies,” the Sunday Mail reported. | And who would know better about all the errors and miscalculations than the ruling party? |
Eight days after the election, the commission has yet to announce the results. Unofficial tallies by independent monitors show Tsvangirai won more votes than Mugabe – but fewer than the 50 percent plus one vote required to avoid a runoff.
The high court heard testimony Sunday afternoon from opposition party lawyers who lodged an urgent petition demanding publication of the election results. Reporters were not admitted to the court hearing. Armed police prevented opposition lawyers from entering the court on Saturday but there was no police presence Sunday.
The Movement for Democratic Change maintained its resistance to a runoff. “We are not going to accept the so-called runoff. It is going to be a 'run-over' of Zimbabwe. People are going to be killed,” Chamisa said. “We are not so naive a leadership to lead our people to slaughter.”
Tsvangirai on Saturday stopped short of saying the party would boycott any runoff. But he voiced concerns that the state would mobilize the armed forces, feared youth brigades and war veterans to terrorize voters into supporting Mugabe.
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The law requires a runoff within 21 days of the initial election, but diplomats in Harare and at the United Nations say Mugabe may order a 90-day delay to give security forces time to clamp down.