Zimbabwe opposition to challenge poll recount
HARARE (Reuters) - Zimbabwe's opposition MDC said on Sundayit will challenge a partial poll recount and the governmentpromised the army would not fight Zimbabweans over the electionwhich has raised fears of bloodshed.
A two-week delay in releasing the results from Zimbabwe'sMarch 29 presidential election has raised political tensions inthe southern African nation, where the economy has collapsed.
A Zimbabwean electoral official said 23 constituencies inthe election would be recounted next Saturday, raising newuncertainty over the vote and the possibility that the rulingZANU-PF could overturn its defeat in the parliamentary poll.
Movement for Democratic Change lawyer Selby Hwacha accusedthe Zimbabwe Electoral Commission (ZEC) of calling the recountto help ZANU-PF rig the poll.
"What ZEC is now trying to do is to abuse the law in anattempt to start a new process at ZANU-PF's bidding. We willsee how they play it out, but we will challenge it," he toldReuters.
Morgan Tsvangirai's MDC says it won the presidential andparliamentary election, and accuses President Robert Mugabe ofrolling out military forces across Zimbabwe to try to extendhis 28-year rule in a de facto coup.
Zimbabwe's information minister said on Sunday the armywill not fight Zimbabweans over election results.
"The soldiers are in the barracks where they belong becausethe country does not fully require their services in such apeaceful environment," Zimbabwe's Sunday Mail quotedInformation Minister Sikhanyiso Ndlovu as saying.
"I believe everyone in the country is aware that there isno military junta."
Zimbabwe's generals occupy no official posts in its rulingparty, but the heads of the army and security forces arethought to have been key planners in an emerging strategy forMugabe, 84, to fight back after elections handed the formerguerrilla commander his biggest defeat since taking power.
The opposition and human rights organisations have accusedMugabe of orchestrating a systematic campaign of violence inresponse to ZANU-PF's first parliamentary defeat.
REGIONAL SUMMIT
No results have been released yet from the parallelpresidential vote but ZANU-PF says neither Mugabe norTsvangirai won the necessary absolute majority and a run-offwill be necessary. The MDC has rejected both a recount and arunoff.
Mugabe has been unfazed by sanctions imposed by Westernfoes and regional leaders have failed to pressure him to enactpolitical reforms.
But he faces the biggest crisis since taking power in 1980,when he was hailed as a liberation hero. Zimbabweans hoped thepoll would bring relief from a deepening economic crisis.
Instead, a political stalemate has deepened anxieties andthere are no signs neighbouring states mediating between Mugabeand the opposition will come to their rescue.
The 14-nation Southern African Development Community (SADC)met in Lusaka, Zambia and called on Sunday for the rapidverification and release of the election results.
Zambian Foreign Minister Kabinga Pande told reporters the13-hour summit had also called on Mugabe to ensure a possiblerun-off vote would be held "in a secure environment".
The summit ran almost 10 hours over schedule and endedaround 5 a.m. (4 a.m. British time). A senior Zambian officialsaid earlier the delay was caused by a disagreement amongleaders over whether the post-election impasse should be calleda crisis.
But Pande, in response to questions, said: "It is not acrisis at all."
Thabo Mbeki, president of Zimbabwe's powerful neighbourSouth Africa, said after meeting Mugabe en route to the summitthere was no crisis. Mugabe did not attend.
Zimbabwe has inflation of more than 100,000 percent -- thehighest in the world -- an unemployment rate above 80 percentand chronic shortages of food and fuel. Millions have fledabroad, most of them to South Africa.
(Additional reporting by Shapi Shacinda and Serena Chaudhryin Lusaka, and Cris Chinaka, Nelson Banya, Stella Mapenzauswa,and Muchena Zigomo; Writing by Michael Georgy, editing by SueThomas and Mary Gabriel)