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Zim run-off date announced
16/05/2008 12:58 - (SA)
Harare - Zimbabwe's long-awaited run-off election was finally set on Friday for June 27 as opposition leader and first-round winner Morgan Tsvangirai prepared to return home for his final push for power.
A fortnight after announcing the Movement for Democratic Change leader won more votes than veteran leader Robert Mugabe in an inconclusive first round, the electoral commission said the run-off would take place in six weeks' time.
In a notice placed in an extraordinary government gazette, the commission announced that "a poll shall be taken on Friday, June 27 2008, for the purpose of electing a person to the office of president".
The announcement was something of a surprise given that the commission had earlier in the week extended a deadline for the election to be held from May 23 to July 31 - sparking fury in the ranks of the opposition.
Tsvangirai, who only reluctantly agreed to take part in the run-off as he believes he passed the 50% threshold in the first round on March 29, has previously said that any ballot held after May 23 will be illegitimate.
MDC to start run-off campaign
The former labour leader has been out of the country for more than a month, but his party said he was lined up to return on Saturday lunchtime and would then immediately kick off his run-off campaign.
"President Tsvangirai is definitely arriving tomorrow at 13:00," the party's director of information Luke Tamborinyoka told AFP.
He would first address lawmakers, who now make up a majority in parliament after a legislative election which also took place on March 29, in the capital Harare before heading to the main southern city of Bulawayo to address a rally.
"The rally in Bulawayo will mark the beginning of nationwide rallies in which he will be seeing victims of political violence as well as thanking the nation for voting for change on March 29," said Tamborinyoka.
Senior members of Mugabe's party, who have already endorsed the president to stand in a run-off, were due to meet on Friday to map out their campaign strategy.
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