Zim heads for run-off

By MacDonald Dzirutwe

Harare - Zimbabwe's opposition leader defeated President Robert Mugabe in the presidential election but faces a run-off vote after he failed to win an outright majority, the electoral body said.

Movement for Democratic Change leader Morgan Tsvangirai won 47,9 percent of the vote on March 29 and Mugabe took 43,2 percent, said Chief Elections Officer Lovemore Sekeramayi.

The result was announced after a verification process by the candidates to check the result, but an opposition MDC spokesperson said the announcement was scandalous and described it as "daylight robbery".

He said the party executive would decide on the next move.

Earlier, it had rejected the figure. Its initial projections showed Tsvangirai had won 50,3 percent of the vote and it said it had ended the rule of Mugabe, 84, who has led Zimbabwe since independence from Britain in 1980.



A month-long delay to results had raised fears of widespread bloodshed in a country suffering economic ruin.

The official figures matched those leaked to Reuters earlier in the week by government officials, in a sign the ground was being prepared for a run-off. By law, a second round should be held within 21 days of a result being announced.

Tsvangirai has raised doubts over whether he would take part in a run-off and has been out of the country since shortly after the vote, trying to keep up international pressure on Mugabe.

Tsvangirai has suggested he could only contest a second round if it was monitored by United Nations-led foreign observers. The main international observer group during the first round was from Zimbabwe's neighbours.

The opposition accuses the ruling Zanu-PF party, which lost its parliamentary majority in a parallel vote on March 29, of a campaign of violence and intimidation ahead of a possible second round and says 20 of its members have been killed.

The government denies that and accuses the MDC of political attacks.

Zimbabwe's economic collapse, for which Mugabe's critics blame his policies, has sent millions of refugees into neighbouring countries to escape severe food, fuel and foreign currency shortages and inflation of 165 000 percent - the world's highest.

Source Url: http://www.iol.co.za/index.php?art_id=nw20080502152757558C887809

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