Zimbabwe opposition refuses to accept runoff

Independent:

Zimbabwe's future looks increasingly perilous after the main opposition Movement for Democratic Change ruled out participating in a run-off election, saying the party had won the presidential election outright in the first round.

In an abrupt U-turn, the MDC secretary general Tendai Biti warned yesterday that any attempt by President Robert Mugabe's regime to stage a run-off election would be a ploy to illegally cling to power and would only heighten the suffering of the Zimbabwean people. Electoral authorities have still not released the results, nearly two weeks after the presidential ballot on 29 March. Mr Mugabe is widely believed to have lost to his long-time rival Morgan Tsvangirai, having watched his ruling party lose control of the lower house of parliament for the first time since independence from Britain.

Mr Biti accused Mr Mugabe of in effect staging a constitutional coup d'état by remaining in office, and said that a military regime was already in place in Zimbabwe. "We won't participate in any election run-off because we won hands down in the first round," Mr Biti said in Johannesburg. "A new [MDC] government has to get on with the business of governing and not a run-off election determined by the main author of Zimbabwe's miseries. Such a run-off will, in fact, be a run-off over the rights of long-suffering Zimbabweans who have made their electoral preferences very loud and clear."

There was also no way in which the MDC could accept and participate in a run-off in Zimbabwe's highly militarised environment in which Mr Mugabe had already intensified a campaign of violence and a siege of terror on defenceless citizens, he went on.

A showdown is looming between Mr Mugabe and his neighbours at an emergency summit in Lusaka, Zambia, tomorrow. Mr Biti challenged southern African leaders to make it very clear to Mr Mugabe that his time is up and that he should allow the victors from the presidential elections to take over. Leaders of the Southern African Development Community (SADC) have called the summit to discuss Zimbabwe and try to stop it degenerating into Kenya-style chaos. But unless they show real determination, it is unlikely that they will be able to put off an impending disaster in Zimbabwe.

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I think Biti has it about right. Any "runoff" election would be a farce since Mugabe thugs are already telling people to vote for Mugabe or die. That does not sound like an environment where a fair election could take place even if it were called for. It will be interesting to see of the other South African governments will step up and tell Mugabe to go.