Political crisis continues in Zimbabwe, 'run-off' imminent
MDC to decide on Saturday whether Tsvangirai would take part in the 'run-off'
Zimbabwe's President Robert Mugabe and his political opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai appear to be heading for a showdown with Tsvangirai's party Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) rejecting electoral officials' claims that election results of March 29 show that Tsvangirai had 47.9 percent of the vote, beating Mugabe by 4.7 percent, but not enough to escape a 'run-off' or a second round contest with the veteran leader, who has led Zimbabwe with an iron fist since 1980.
"We don't agree with their figures. They will have to prove us wrong. We are now going into the verification of those figures," said MDC spokesman Chris Mbanga. MDC claims Tsvangirai got 50.3 percent of the votes and has accused Mugabe's ZANU-PF party of delaying in announcing the results to rig ballot boxes and force a 'run-off.'
MDC has also questioned the authenticity of 1,20,000 votes that were polled in favor of Mugabe. "We said to the Electoral Commission we're not moving forward until we understand where these 120,000 votes came from," said George Sibotshiwe, MDC spokesman.
Calling the announcement of the long-delayed result "scandalous daylight robbery," MDC spokesman Nelson Chamisa said the verification of the votes had not been done properly.
"This whole thing is a scandal, scandalous daylight robbery and everyone knows that," Chamisa said. "We won this election outright, and yet what we are being given here as the outcome are some fudged figures meant to save Mugabe and ZANU-PF."
Agreeing, MDC Secretary General Tendai Biti said Tsvangirai should be declared president.
"According to the law, the person receiving the highest number of votes is the president of the republic of Zimbabwe with effect from the day of such declaration," he said.
"Even on their own announcement, we have won this election and therefore Morgan Tsvangirai is to be declared the president of the republic of Zimbabwe," Tendai said, adding, that MDC would decide on Saturday whether Tsvangirai should take part in the 'run-off.'
Tsvangirai himself has not confirmed whether he would take part in the 'run-off' and, in case, he backs out, it would mean handing over victory to Mugabe, 84, who has held power since independence from Britain. However, if Tsvangirai takes part in the 'run-off,' it would only be under the international observation of the United Nations (UN), a MDC offcial said. During the first round, the main international observer group was from Zimbabwe's neighbors. A 'run-off' usually takes place within 21 days of a result being announced.
Meanwhile, Tsvangirai is presently trying to garner international support for the ouster of Mugabe and the ruling ZANU-PF party, which has launched a campaign of bloodshed and intimidation of MDC supporters ever since the election results were out. However, the ruling government has dismissed the accusations, claiming MDC was participating in political attacks and said that a 'run-off' was imminent.
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