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Wait continues in Zim
28/04/2008 14:30 - (SA)
Harare - Lawyers in Zimbabwe appealed for the release of some 200 jailed opposition activists on Monday as officials defied pressure from the West to release the results of last month's presidential election.
The activists were rounded up by armed riot police at the headquarters of the opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) in Harare on Friday, the same day police raided the offices of independent election observers.
"We got an order from the high court... that they be released immediately. If not, they should be charged and be brought to court by 14:00," Alec Muchadehama, one of the lawyers, told AFP.
Muchadehama said some of the detainees needed urgent medical attention.
Meanwhile election officials said there would be a further delay in the announcement of results from a presidential election on March 29 that pitted veteran leader Robert Mugabe against opposition challenger Morgan Tsvangirai.
A spokesperson for the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission said the results of a partial recount still had to be verified and that the outcome would only be announced after a meeting with representatives of the candidates.
Sharp economic decline
"We will give them a date or phone them when they can come, but right now that has not been done as we are still verifying the figures from the constituencies," said the spokesman, Utloile Silaigwana.
Mugabe has ruled Zimbabwe since independence from Britain in 1980 and faces the biggest challenge of his political career, with the opposition saying its candidate won an outright majority in the presidential vote.
The troubled southern African state has been in sharp economic decline, with shortages of most basic foodstuffs and an inflation rate officially put at 165 000% - the highest in the world.
Election officials earlier confirmed that the opposition won a historic victory in parliamentary elections also held on March 29, taking control of the legislature from Mugabe's ZANU-PF party for the first time in 28 years.
The opposition accuses Mugabe of ordering the recount in order to buy time to unleash a campaign of violence in rural areas that voted against him so as to secure victory in a possible second round of the presidential election.
The opposition says 15 of its supporters have been killed so far.
Britain and the United States have urged Mugabe to step down, saying the opposition won the presidential vote. A UN Security Council meeting on Tuesday is expected to ratchet up the pressure even more.
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Zimbabwe Special Report
