ZIMBABWE: ZIMBABWE OPPOSITION leader Morgan Tsvangirai will return to Harare this week to prepare for a presidential run-off with President Robert Mugabe after declaring on Saturday he would contest a second round.
The Movement for Democratic Change leader has stayed away from Zimbabwe since the March 29th poll because of concerns over his safety amid escalating state-sponsored violence that has swept the country. He had also insisted that no run-off was necessary because independent tallies from the poll showed he had won the election outright.
Speaking to reporters in Johannesburg, Mr Tsvangirai said after consulting with party members and supporters in Zimbabwe it had been decided he should contest the run-off despite the widespread violence and the party's belief he had won outright victory in the first poll.
"We know that another election may bring more violence, more gloom, more betrayal . . . but a run-off election could finally knock out the dictator Mugabe for good," he said.
Official results released 11 days ago showed no candidate had secured more than the 50 per cent plus one vote needed for an outright victory - Mr Tsvangirai won 47.9 per cent of the vote, against 43.2 per cent for Mr Mugabe. This meant a second round was needed.
The former trade union leader said the MDC had submitted a list of conditions for his participation in another ballot to the Southern African Development Community, which oversaw the general election in March. These included the need for international peacekeepers, regional election monitors and an end to violence.
He also said the ballot needed to take place within 21 days of the release of the presidential result, which occurred on May 2nd.
"The ZEC has a legal obligation to fulfil that next step," said Mr Tsvangirai. "If they don't fulfil that, then they will have set off on a campaign of delegitimising it [the run-off]." However, Mr Mugabe's ruling Zanu-PF party is unlikely to accept the MDC's conditions. Western observers and most media were banned from reporting on the March 29th poll because of alleged bias against the ruling regime.
While no date for the second round has been scheduled yet, election officials were quoted in state media yesterday as saying they need more time to organise the run-off.
"It was ambitious for the legislature to think 21 days would be enough," electoral commission chief George Chiweshe Chiweshe told the state-run Sunday Mailbefore adding that legal provisions exist to extend the period in which the poll must be held.
Meanwhile, the MDC said it now believes 32 of its members have been killed in post-election violence and that another 30 people were missing.
"Thirty-two are concerned [dead], but there are still more people that we need to verify and check. There are another 30 that we are unable to account for," MDC spokesman George Sibotshiwe said yesterday.
On Friday, South African president Thabo Mbeki, who was asked to act as a mediator in the crisis by regional leaders, met Mr Mugabe in Harare.
Although he refused to divulge to reporters details of the meeting, he reiterated his long-held public view that Zimbabweans must solve their own problems.
"It's not South Africa that is going to solve the problems of Zimbabwe or indeed anybody else," he said.