Mugabe: 'Down But Not Out'

By Jose Alface Posted 04 April 2008 @ 06:31 pm EET     Print     Reprint     E-Mail     Comments

MAPUTO (IBTimes.com) - Zimbabwean incumbent President Robert Mugabe met with his party aides on Friday to discuss the possibility of a run-off vote with the opposition leader if results show that neither side won a majority of votes.

Mugabe's ZANU-PF party said it expects a presidential runoff with opposition leader, Morgan Tsvangira, within the next three weeks if official results are released. The Zimbabwe Electoral Commission (ZEC) failed once again to announce official results, going into the sixth day after elections were held.

"It's definite there will be a re-run," said Didymus Mutasa, the administration secretary of Mugabe's ZANU-PF, according to Agence France-Presse.

"We are down but not out", he said.

Mugabe has ruled Zimbabwe for 28 years and is seeking his sixth term.

Preliminary tallies posted at each polling place show Morgan Tsvangirai, won 50.3 percent of the vote, a razor-thin gain over ZANU-PF. The win is not enough to gain the majority needed to avoid a runoff election against Mugabe.

A sense of mistrust and suspense hovered over Zimbabwe after police ransacked the Miekles Hotel in central Harare on Thursday while searching rooms which the main opposition party, the Movement for Democratic Change, had rented for election operations.

In a small hotel nearby, in the suburban part of the city, a second group of riot officers raided rooms where journalists were staying. Police arrested two foreign journalists accused of reporting without official accreditation. Police arrested six people, including Barry Bearak, a correspondent for The New York Times who was later sent to a Harare jail.

Bright Matonga, a deputy information minister for Mugabe, said that the president is not prepared to step down.

"He's not giving up; he's not going anywhere," Matonga said to reporters.

The delay has drawn international criticism, and raised concern that Mugabe's allies will attempt to rig the vote, something he has done in previous elections.

U.S. President Bush expressed his concern for the nation. While traveling to Croatia after the annual NATO summit concluded in Romania, he called South African president, Thabo Mbeki, to discuss the situation in Zimbabwe, according to the White House press secretary, Dana M. Perino.

"As we've said, our position is we are concerned about violence," Perino said.

The ZEC had said they have been slow to release the presidential count because it is the first election was the first one held at all national offices, implying more time would be needed for tallying the votes.