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Zimbabwe Opposition Seeks Aid

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The New York Times

Published: May 4, 2008

JOHANNESBURG, South Africa - Claiming that their presidential candidate was robbed of victory in long-delayed official election results, leaders of Zimbabwe's opposition party made a last-ditch diplomatic push Saturday to persuade the African Union and a bloc of southern African nations to insist on a verifiable vote count.

Zimbabwe's election authorities declared Friday that the opposition candidate, Morgan Tsvangirai, won 47.9 percent of the vote in the March 29 presidential election, not enough to avoid a runoff with the incumbent, Robert Mugabe, who got 43.2 percent.

Tsvangirai and his party's leaders must now decide whether he will take part in a runoff despite their contention that election authorities denied them the ability to verify the outcome of an election they think they won outright. If Tsvangirai does not run, Mugabe will be declared the winner under Zimbabwean law.

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