Zimbabwe’s ruling party demands recount of disputed election results

HARARE, Zimbabwe – President Robert Mugabe’s ruling party demanded a vote recount and a further delay in the release of presidential election results, the state Sunday Mail newspaper reported, prompting outrage from the opposition party.\nMeanwhile, militant supporters of the ruling party invaded eight of the few remaining white-owned commercial farms, the farmers reported, another sign Mugabe plans to use violence to stay in power.\nAt least four cattle ranchers were driven off their land, and equipment and livestock were seized, the farmers said.\n“I’ve got one farmer and his wife with two young children, and people banging on windows, ululating and beating drums and telling them to vacate the farm,” in northern Centenary, Hendrik Olivier, the head of the Commercial Farmers’ Union told The Associated Press.\nHe said police had persuaded militants to leave six farms in southeast Zimbabwe, but others invaded two farms in Centenary.\nThe opposition Movement for Democratic Change, which claims its leader Morgan Tsvangirai won the March 29 presidential ballot outright, said it would not accept a recount, did not want a runoff and pressed ahead with legal attempts to force publication of the results.\n“How do you have a vote recount for a result that has not been announced? That is ridiculous,” said opposition spokesman Nelson Chamisa.\nHe accused the ruling ZANU-PF party of vote fraud, saying that police have told opposition leaders that the ruling party has been tampering with ballots since early last week.\n“These claims are totally unfounded and they are only meant to justify ZANU-PF’s rigging,” he said.\nThe ruling party cited “errors and miscalculations in the compilation of the poll result” and asked the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission to defer announcement of the presidential election results because of the “anomalies,” the Sunday Mail reported.\nThe report came a day after Tsvangirai called on Mugabe to step down and accused the 84-year-old longtime ruler of plotting a campaign of violence to bolster his chances of winning an expected runoff.\nEight days after the election, the commission has yet to announce the results. Unofficial tallies by independent monitors show Tsvangirai won more votes than Mugabe –but fewer than the 50 percent plus one vote required to avoid a runoff.\nThe high court heard testimony Sunday afternoon from opposition party lawyers who lodged an urgent petition demanding publication of the election results. Reporters were not admitted to the court hearing. Armed police prevented opposition lawyers from entering the court on Saturday but there was no police presence Sunday.\nOpposition party lawyer Andrew Makoni said the high court judge would rule Monday on the petition.\nThe Movement for Democratic Change maintained its resistance to a runoff.\n“We are not going to accept the so-called runoff. It is going to be a ‘run-over’ of Zimbabwe. People are going to be killed,” Chamisa said. “We are not so naive a leadership to lead our people to slaughter.”