ZIMBABWE - FRANCE 24 EXCLUSIVE
Tsvangirai rejects run-off vote option
Thursday 01 May 2008
Zimbabwe opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai told FRANCE 24 there is no need for an election run-off against President Robert Mugabe as he had secured a decisive victory in the first round on March 29. (Report: C. Casali)
Special Report Elections in ZimbabweThursday 01 May 2008
By AFPZimbabwe opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai said Thursday he saw no need for an election run-off against President Robert Mugabe as he had secured a decisive victory in the first round on March 29.
In an interview with France 24 on the day the electoral commission was to present both camps with its initial results, Tsvangirai said his party had compiled its own tally based on returns posted outside polling stations.
"The results give us a decisive victory so there's no need for a run-off," said the Movement for Democratic Change leader.
Tsvangirai said he would not trust any results announced by the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission (ZEC) as a result of the lengthy delay since polling.
"For a whole one month they have been not revealing those results which means they have been either been tampering with those results, manipulating those results or massaging those results, so ZEC itself has been totally discredited by this delay."
Tsvangirai also accused Mugabe of unleashing a wave of violence which he said would make it impossible for a second round of voting to be free and fair.
"How can you have a run-off when Mugabe over the last month has been unleashing violence, death squads and violence, against our structures and decimating our electoral structures on the ground, burning houses of our people, refugees in the country beating up people, and hurting people."
"How do you run an election under those circumstances?"
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IN THE FIELD
"They might be doing this to sweeten the deal." Alex Duvall Smith reports from S. Africa.
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ON FRANCE 24
"No question of run-off vote" Morgan Tsvangirai said on 'The Talk of Paris' 01/04 10:30 am (GMT+2)
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ANALYSIS
"The UN can do nothing for the moment" Douglas Yates, professor political science. 30/04
