Johannesburg
13 April 2008
Zimbabwe's opposition Movement for Democratic Change says it will challenge a decision by the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission to do a complete ballot recount in 23 constituencies. And as VOA's Delia Robertson reports from our southern Africa bureau in Johannesburg, a southern African leader meeting in Lusaka called for the release of the result in the presidential poll.
"We won this election without the need of a runoff, and that position has not changed," Biti said. "What SADC seemed to try to be seducing us, is to say well if there are guarantees of the rule of law, and there are conditions, and the result indicates a runoff, then everyone should participate."
As the leaders gathered in Lusaka, the Zimbabwe Eelectoral Commission announced it will recount votes in 23 constituencies for all four elections, that is for president, for parliament, for the senate and for local government.
The MDC says it will seek a court injunction to prevent the recount scheduled for Saturday. The MDC accuses the ruling ZANUF-PF party of using the time between the election and now to stuff ballot boxes with votes for President Robert Mugabe and remove ballots in favor of Tsvangirai.
The opposition party also says that 84-year-old Zimbabwean leader has delayed the result to give his party time to intimidate the population, especially in rural areas, with a campaign of violence. Some attacks have been documented by international human-rights groups.
All of these allegation have been rejected by the government, the ruling party and the commission.
Meanwhile, the High Court in Harare is expected to rule Monday on an application by the MDC to compel the commission to immediately release the tally in the presidential poll.