Zimbabwe opposition to challenge poll recount

HARARE (Reuters) - Zimbabwe's opposition MDC vowed onSunday to challenge a partial recount it said was designed tohelp President Robert Mugabe rig an election which has raisedfears of a military crackdown.

A two-week delay in releasing the results from Zimbabwe'sMarch 29 presidential election has heightened tensions in thesouthern African nation, where the economy has collapsed.

Regional leaders held a summit in Lusaka and called for therapid verification and release of poll results and urgedMugabe, who did not attend, to ensure a possible run-off wouldbe held "in a secure environment".

The Zimbabwe Electoral Commission (ZEC) said on Sunday ithad ordered vote recounts in 23 constituencies, raisinguncertainty over the vote and the possibility that the rulingZANU-PF could overturn its defeat in the parliamentary poll.

"Vote recounts have been indicated in respect of all four,council, house of assembly, senate and presidential elections,"Utoile Silaigwana, ZEC deputy chief elections officer, toldReuters. He declined to give further details.

Movement for Democratic Change lawyer Selby Hwacha accusedthe ZEC of calling the recount to help ZANU-PF rig the poll andsaid the MDC would launch a legal challenge on Tuesday.

"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 Mugabe of rolling outmilitary forces across Zimbabwe to try to extend his 28-yearrule in a de facto coup.

The opposition and human rights organisations have accusedMugabe's ruling party of orchestrating a systematicpost-election campaign of violence and intimidation while itbuys time to rig the vote.

The government sought to ease concerns the military mightintervene, saying troops would not be deployed to fightcivilians over the vote.

"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.

REGIONAL SUMMIT

No results have been released yet from the presidentialvote but ZANU-PF says neither Mugabe nor Tsvangirai won thenecessary absolute majority and a run-off will be necessary.The MDC has rejected both a recount and a runoff.

The MDC filed a petition on Friday to try and block therecount, said Hwacha. He said the High Court had issued anorder to stop the ZEC from recounting 16 constituencies. Thecourt has not confirmed this.

Mugabe has been unfazed by sanctions imposed by Westernfoes and regional leaders have failed to pressure him to enactpolitical reforms. But the March 29 vote has created hisbiggest crisis since taking power in 1980, when he was hailedas a liberation hero.

Zimbabweans had hoped the poll would bring relief from adeepening 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)summit ran almost 10 hours over schedule and ended around 5a.m. (4 a.m. British time). A senior Zambian official said thedelay was caused by a disagreement among leaders over whetherthe post-election impasse should be called a crisis.

Zambian Foreign Minister Kabinga Pande, in response toquestions, told reporters after the 13-hour summit: "It is nota crisis at all."

Thabo Mbeki, president of Zimbabwe's powerful neighbourSouth Africa, said after meeting Mugabe en route to the summitthere was no crisis.

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)