Zimbabwe's Tsvangirai to return for second round
HARARE (Reuters) - Zimbabwean opposition leader MorganTsvangirai restarts his campaign to oust Robert Mugabe at homeon Saturday after seeking support abroad in his risky standoffwith the president.
Zimbabwe will hold a second round of a presidentialelection on June 27 after official results, released after along delay, showed Tsvangirai beat Mugabe in the first round onMarch 29, but not by enough votes to avoid a run-off.
The March vote was followed by widespread violence. The MDCsaid at least 40 of its supporters have been killed and scoresof others have been injured.
Mugabe told a ruling ZANU-PF party conference on Friday theresult had been "disastrous", and vowed he would not lose powerto an opposition he said was backed by "a hostile axis ofpowerful foreign governments" and Western imperialists.
Tsvangirai said on Friday Zimbabwe's problems stemmed fromMugabe's long rule, not from the issue of who owns the land,which Mugabe has made a centrepiece of his policy.
"There is now a general understanding that the crisis inZimbabwe is not a problem about land it is the problem of adictator who refuses to give up power."
Tsvangirai's Movement for Democratic Change expects himback in the capital Harare soon after noon on Saturday.
He is expected to brief opposition members of parliament onhis tour of Africa and Europe and to underline their role incontrol of the legislature, which they won from ZANU-PF for thefirst time since 1980 in the March 29 vote.
"It is a meeting of the victorious team, a statement toMugabe that he is simply delaying the inevitable and that comeJune 27, he too will have to make way for presidentTsvangirai," MDC spokesman Nelson Chamisa said.
Zimbabweans are hoping the poll will help end political andeconomic turmoil which has brought 165,000 percent inflation,80 percent unemployment, chronic food and fuel shortages andsent a flood of refugees to neighbouring countries.
LEGITIMATE ELECTION
Former guerrilla leader Mugabe, 84, had already said hewould participate in the run-off and Tsvangirai said on Fridayhe would take part but warned that violence had to end.
"We will participate in the run-off but ... violence has tocease for an election to be conducted or that election will notbe legitimate," he told reporters at a conference in Belfast.
The opposition scored a small victory on Friday when acourt ordered police not to interfere with a MDC rally, due totake place in Zimbabwe's second city of Bulawayo on Sunday.
The rally, at which Tsvangirai was to address supportersfor the first time since April 8, was banned by police onThursday.
Noel Kututwa, chairman of independent election observergroup the Zimbabwe Election Support Network, said, "To hold anelection under these circumstances ... I think the legitimacyof that election will be called into question."
Tsvangirai appears to be in a strong position to win a fairvote. But the opposition, human rights groups and Westerncountries accuse Mugabe of launching a campaign of violence andintimidation to try to secure victory.
ZANU-PF denies responsibility, accusing the MDC ofunleashing the violence to discredit Mugabe.
"Our fist is against white imperialism. It is a fist forthe people of Zimbabwe, never a fist against them," Mugabesaid.
(Writing by Marius Bosch; editing by Philippa Fletcher)