Recount?

From The Times (UK), 6 April: Robert Mugabe's Zanu PF demands recount in Zimbabwe election

President Robert Mugabe’s ruling party today demanded a recount of the vote in last weekend's Zimbabwean presidential election, pushing the timetable for the results to be released ever further back. The move, reported in the state Sunday Mail newspaper, prompted outrage from the opposition party which claims its leader Morgan Tsvangirai won the March 29 presidential ballot outright. The Movement for Democratic Change said that it would not accept a recount, and did not want a runoff. Today it was pressing ahead with legal attempts to force the publication of the results. "How do you have a vote recount for a result that has not been announced? That is ridiculous," said Nelson Chamisa, an opposition spokesman. He accused the ruling Zanu PF party of vote fraud, claiming that police have told opposition leaders that the ruling party has been tampering with ballots ever since the election. "These claims are totally unfounded and they are only meant to justify Zanu PF's rigging," he said. The Sunday Mail quoted a letter from a lawyer representing Zanu PF calling for a recount because of "errors and miscalculations in the compilation of the poll result". The party also asked the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission to defer announcement of the presidential election results because of the "anomalies", the paper reported. The report came a day after Mr Tsvangirai called on Mr Mugabe to step down, and accused the country’s longtime ruler of plotting a campaign of violence to bolster his chances of winning an expected runoff. Eight days after the election, the commission has yet to announce the results. Unofficial tallies by independent monitors show that Mr Tsvangirai won more votes than Mr Mugabe, but fewer than the 50 percent plus one vote required to avoid a runoff.

Opposition party lawyer Andrew Makoni said a high court judge was expected to rule at 2pm on an urgent petition demanding publication of the election results, but the time came and went with no news from the court. Mr Makoni said that the judge had only just received a submission from the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission justifying the delay, and needed time to consider it. Armed police prevented opposition lawyers from entering the court yesterday but there was no police presence today. 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," Mr Chamisa said. "We are not so naive a leadership to lead our people to slaughter." Yesterday Mr Tsvangirai stopped short of saying the party would boycott any runoff. But he voiced concerns that the state would mobilise the armed forces, feared youth brigades and war veterans to terrorise voters into supporting Mr Mugabe. He said Zanu PF was "preparing a war against the people". Mr Mugabe has been accused of winning previous elections through violence and intimidation. Scores of opponents were killed during the 2002 and 2005 campaigns. 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. "Mugabe must accept that the country needs to move forward. He cannot hold the country to ransom. He is the problem not the solution," said Mr Tsvangirai, who appealed to African leaders and the UN to intervene to "prevent chaos and dislocation."

Bright Matonga, the Deputy Information Minister, dismissed fears of violence as "a lot of nonsense". Mr Mugabe, 84, has ruled since his guerrilla army helped overthrow white minority rule in 1980. His popularity has been battered by an economic collapse since 2000 following the forcible seizures of white-owned commercial farms. A third of the population has fled the country and 80 per cent are jobless. Inflation is raging at more than 100,000 percent. Official results for parliamentary elections held alongside the presidential race showed Zanu PF losing its majority in the 210-seat parliament for the first time in the country’s history. Final results for the 60 elected seats in the senate gave the ruling party and the opposition 30 seats each.