By MacDonald Dzirutwe
HARARE (Reuters) - Zimbabwe's opposition Movement forDemocratic Change (MDC) will on Tuesday challenge in court apartial election vote recount, its lawyer said on Sunday.
MDC lawyer Selby Hwacha accused Zimbabwe's electoralcommission of calling the recount for Saturday to helpPresident Robert Mugabe find a way out of the biggest challengeto his 28-year rule.
"We will see how they play it out, but we will challengeit," he told Reuters.
A Zimbabwean electoral official said 23 constituencies inthe election would be recounted next Saturday, raising newuncertainty over the vote and the possibility that ZANU-PFcould overturn its defeat in the parliamentary poll.
A two-week delay in releasing the results from Zimbabwe'sMarch 29 presidential election has raised fears of violence inthe southern African nation, where the economy has collapsed.
Zimbabwe's army will not fight Zimbabweans over electionresults, the information minister said earlier, responding toopposition charges that President Robert Mugabe had staged a defacto coup to extend his rule.
"The soldiers are in the barracks where they belong becausethe country does not fully require their services in such apeaceful environment. I believe everyone in the country isaware that there is no military junta," Zimbabwe's Sunday Mailquoted Information Minister Sikhanyiso Ndlovu as saying.
MDC leader Morgan Tsvangirai has accused Mugabe's ZANU-PFof rolling out military forces across Zimbabwe to try to findhis way out of the biggest challenge to his rule sinceindependence in 1980.
ZANU-PF says neither Mugabe nor MDC leader MorganTsvangirai won the necessary absolute majority and a run-offwill be necessary. But the MDC says Tsvangirai has won outrightand that Mugabe's 28-year rule is over.
Southern African leaders called on Sunday for the rapidrelease of the election results.
Zambian Foreign Minister Kabinga Pande told reporters a13-hour summit in Lusaka had also called Mugabe to ensure thata possible run-off vote against Tsvangirai be held "in a secureenvironment".
The 14-nation Southern African Development Community (SADC)"urged the electoral authorities in Zimbabwe that verificationand release of results are expeditiously done in accordancewith the due process of law", said Pande.
(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 Sami Aboudi)
