Zimbabwe's opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) will on Tuesday challenge in court a partial election vote recount, its lawyer said today.
MDC lawyer Selby Hwacha accused Zimbabwe's electoral commission of calling the recount for Saturday to help President Robert Mugabe find a way out of the biggest challenge to his 28-year rule.
"We will see how they play it out, but we will challenge it," he said.
The Zimbabwe Electoral Commission (ZEC) said today it had ordered vote recounts in 23 constituencies, raising uncertainty over the vote and the possibility that the ruling ZANU-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, told Reuters. He declined to give further details.
A two-week delay in releasing the results from Zimbabwe's March 29th presidential election has raised fears of violence in the southern African nation, where the economy has collapsed.
Zimbabwe's army will not fight Zimbabweans over election results, the information minister said earlier, responding to opposition charges that Mr Mugabe had staged a de facto coup to extend his rule.
"The soldiers are in the barracks where they belong because the country does not fully require their services in such a peaceful environment. I believe everyone in the country is aware 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-PF of rolling out military forces across Zimbabwe to try to find his way out of the biggest challenge to his rule since independence in 1980.
ZANU-PF says neither Mr Mugabe nor Mr Tsvangirai won the necessary absolute majority and a run-off will be necessary. But the MDC says Mr Tsvangirai has won outright and that Mr Mugabe's rule is over.
Southern African leaders called today for the rapid release of the election results.
Zambian foreign minister Kabinga Pande told reporters a 13-hour summit in Lusaka had also called Mr Mugabe to ensure that a possible run-off vote against Mr Tsvangirai be held "in a secure environment".
The 14-nation Southern African Development Community (SADC) "urged the electoral authorities in Zimbabwe that verification and release of results are expeditiously done in accordance with the due process of law", said Mr Pande.
Zimbabwe President Robert Mugabe did not attend the summit.
Mr Mugabe, in power since independence from Britain in 1980, said he was not snubbing the summit, which three government ministers attended.
He also dismissed comments by British prime minister Gordon Brown that the world was losing patience.
"If Brown is the world, sure, he will lose patience. I know Brown as a little tiny dot on this planet," said Mr Mugabe who calls the MDC a puppet of Britain, the former colonial power.