A lawyer for Zimbabwe's electoral commission said today it would be "dangerous" for the High Court to order the release of presidential election results, as demanded by the opposition MDC.
MDC secretary-general Tendai Biti at a news conference yesterday
The Movement for Democratic Change has gone to court to try to force out the result of the March 29th vote, saying its leader Morgan Tsvangirai has won and should be declared president, ending the 28-year rule of President Robert Mugabe.
Mr Mugabe is trying to delay the result announcement, pending a recount, to give him time to prepare for a probable runoff against Mr Tsvangirai.
George Chikumbirike, a lawyer for the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission, told judge Tendai Uchena: "It would be dangerous in my view to give an order because it might not be complied with ... because of outside exigencies which the party (ZEC) will be unable to control."
He did not elaborate but appeared to be referring to rising tension in Zimbabwe because of the post-election impasse.
Mr Chikumbirike also declined to say how far the ZEC had gone in preparing to announce the result, saying this was privileged information which "the commission has entitlement to release when it's ready".
Jacob Zuma, leader of the ruling party in Zimbabwe's powerful neighbour South Africa, earlier joined a chorus of demands for the release of the results.
The MDC says Mr Mugabe, accused by critics of ruining his once prosperous country, has unleashed a wave of violence against the opposition since the election and called on African nations to intervene to prevent further bloodshed.
Mr Zuma, who rivals President Thabo Mbeki as the most powerful man in South Africa and is the frontrunner to succeed him in 2009, told the Star newspaper: "I think the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission should have announced results by now."
Western powers led by former colonial ruler Britain and the United States have been calling for the result since last week but South Africa has much greater influence as the regional power that has tried to mediate in the Zimbabwe crisis.
"It is not a good thing to keep the nation in suspense. Now the Zimbabwean elections have become an international issue. We all expected that once the elections were finished, results would be announced. Now there are suspicions from the people," said Mr Zuma, who met Mr Tsvangirai earlier this week.
His remarks opened a gap with Mr Mbeki who has consistently called for "quiet diplomacy" in Zimbabwe and led unsuccessful mediation last year by the regional body SADC.
European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso said he was very concerned by delays in the release of results.
"We are very concerned about all these delays and the lack of transparency in the presidential election process," Mr Barroso told a news conference on EU development aid.
Mr Tsvangirai is expected to meet Mr Mbeki to try to end a political deadlock, a local newspaper reported today.
Business Daysaid the meeting would mark Mr Mbeki's first overt involvement in resolving the crisis over the election.
Archbishop Desmond Tutu said Mr Mugabe could still redeem himself by stepping down as president of Zimbabwe to ease tensions.
Archbishop Tutu, the South African Nobel Peace Prize laureate, urged the 84-year-old Mugabe to accept that he lost last month's presidential election.
"They are tipping over the precipice," he told a small group of reporters. "Violence is very much in the air."
Zimbabwe has inflation of more than 100,000 per cent - the highest in the world - an unemployment rate above 80 per cent and chronic shortages of food and fuel. Millions have fled abroad, most of them to South Africa.
ZANU-PF is pressing for a delay in issuing the presidential results pending a recount and is also alleging abuses by electoral officials in an attempt to overturn its first defeat in a parliamentary poll.
"Militias are being rearmed, ZANU-PF supporters are being rearmed. ... The long and short of it is that there has been a complete militarization of Zimbabwean society since the 29th of March 2008,"
MDC secretary-general Tendai Biti said.