TBO.com - TBO is Tampa Bay Online

Zimbabwe Election Runoff Scheduled For June 27

ADVERTISEMENT

The Associated Press

Published: May 17, 2008

Updated: 05/20/2008 05:11 pm

HARARE, Zimbabwe - Seven weeks after the presidential election, Zimbabwe finally set a runoff date Friday, saying longtime President Robert Mugabe and rival Morgan Tsvangirai will face off in a June 27 ballot that the opposition fears will be skewed by thuggery and fraud.
Opposition supporters have been beaten, killed and driven from their homes in a recent campaign of terror that observers say is meant to secure Mugabe's lock on power.

Tsvangirai had insisted Thursday that the runoff be held next week, amid fears further delay would mean even more violence, but he said after the election commission's announcement that he planned to compete in the balloting.

Tsvangirai, speaking to reporters on the sidelines of an international liberal party conference in Belfast, Northern Ireland, said setting the date in June was illegal, but "we will contest."

The opposition leader has claimed he won the March 29 presidential election outright, although independent monitors disagreed. Official results released May 2 gave Tsvangirai the most votes, but not the majority needed to avoid a second round against Mugabe.

In parliamentary elections held with the presidential ballot, the opposition won a majority of the seats, ending the ruling party's long control of the assembly.

Mugabe expressed determination Friday, telling supporters at the headquarters of his party that although he will one day "be succeeded," it will not be by an opposition that he accuses of being prepared to lead the country back to colonial rule.

He also said the March 29 balloting "was indeed disastrous" for his party.

Mugabe has ruled since independence from Britain in 1980 and once was hailed for promoting racial reconciliation and bringing education and health care to the black majority. In recent years, however, he has been accused of becoming authoritarian and pursuing policies that wrecked a farm-based economy that had been the thriving breadbasket of southern Africa.

Tsvangirai's party planned a parliamentary caucus today and a campaign rally Sunday. Party officials have indicated that Tsvangirai, who has been out of the country since shortly after the first round of voting, would be back in Zimbabwe for those events.

In Belfast, Tsvangirai said he "must return to Zimbabwe to be with our people and to lift them out of the darkness" - but he did not give a date.

Tsvangirai has survived three assassination attempts, including one in 1997 by unidentified assailants who tried to throw him out a 10th floor office window. Last year, he was hospitalized after a brutal assault by police at a prayer rally, and images seen around the world of his bruised and swollen face have come to symbolize the challenge dissenters face in Zimbabwe.

Share this:

Loading Comments...

Email Print

ADVERTISEMENT