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Zim vote recount announced
13/04/2008 07:23 - (SA)
Harare - The post-election crisis in Zimbabwe deepened on Sunday with the announcement of a vote recount that could return control of parliament to President Robert Mugabe's ruling party.
News on state media that 23 out of 210 constituencies would be recounted next Saturday came as regional leaders tried to thrash out a joint statement in response to the crisis at an emergency summit in the Zambian capital Lusaka.
Zambia's President Levy Mwanawasa told leaders of the 14-nation Southern African Development Community (SADC) in his opening address that doing nothing was not an option.
"SADC cannot stand by and do nothing when one of its members is experiencing political and economic pain. It would be wrong to turn a blind eye," the summit chairperson said.
Marathon talks
Before retreating behind closed doors for marathon talks which were continuing well into Sunday, Mwanawasa insisted the summit was "not intended to put President Mugabe in the dock."
Mugabe turned down an invitation to attend and sent a delegation of four ministers instead, but his nemesis - the leader of the opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) Morgan Tsvangirai - was present.
Tsvangirai's hopes that leaders might issue a hard-hitting statement and even put pressure on Mugabe to stand down were dealt a blow when President Thabo Mbeki of regional power South Africa stopped over in Harare on his way to Lusaka.
After his first face-to-face talks with Mugabe since the elections, Mbeki seemingly ignored pleas for outside pressure to be levied upon the veteran Zimbabwean strongman and suggested things be allowed to run their course.
"There is no crisis in Zimbabwe," he told journalists. "The body authorised to release the results is the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission, let's wait for them to announce the results."
The focus of the crisis had been on the delay in announcing the outcome of the presidential election, but the announcement of a recount threw the spotlight back on the parliamentary result declared on April 2.
Need win only 9 seats
Mugabe's Zanu-PF lost parliamentary control to the opposition for the first time in the legislative vote with the MDC and its splinter faction winning a combined 109 seats to just 97 for the ruling party.
This means Zanu-PF need only win back nine seats in the recount to regain control of parliament. Presidential, senatorial and council votes were also to be tallied again in the same 23 constituencies.
A large majority of the parliamentary seats to be recounted were won by the MDC and many of them by only a slither of votes - in one case as few as 19.
Election commission chairperson George Chiweshe said 22 of the constituencies had been disputed by the Zanu-PF, while only one had been contested by the MDC.
"All votes cast for each election in the respective constituencies will be recounted since it is the same process that resulted in the complaints that were raised," he told the Sunday Mail.
He explained the decision by saying he had "reasonable grounds" to believe votes had been miscounted.
In a further blow to the opposition, state television reported Saturday it had unearthed a secret document detailing plans by the MDC to rig the elections.
The document, allegedly written by Tsvangirai's number two Tendai Biti - who was accompanying him at the Lusaka summit - stated that election officials had been paid to ensure a landslide victory.
Mugabe's ruling Zimbabwe African National Union-Patriotic Front (Zanu-PF) says neither the 84-year-old incumbent nor Tsvangirai won a clear victory in the presidential election and insists the battle must go to a second round.
The MDC has called for a general strike to be launched from Tuesday, the day after a court is due to rule on its bid to force the publication of the election result.
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