ZIMBABWE'S opposition yesterday held out the possibility that its leader would face Robert Mugabe in a presidential run-off, but called on the nation's neighbours to verify the vote count from the first round.
Thokozani Khupe, vice president of the Movement for Democratic Change, said the group still believed a run-off was unnecessary, maintaining that opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai won the first round outright on March 29.
The Zimbabwe Electoral C
ommission released results on Friday, giving Tsvangirai the lead, but not the clear majority needed to avoid a run-off with Mugabe.
The opposition rejected those results as fraudulent.
At a news conference yesterday, Khupe called on the Southern African Development Committee to help verify the results. "We still need to be convinced before we participate in a run-off," she said.
Opposition leaders were expected to meet this weekend to consider their next step. No run-off date has been set.
Deputy information minister Bright Matonga said the constitution requires a second round no sooner than 21 days from the announcement of the results, and no later than a year.
The opposition has consistently rejected the idea of a run-off, but its stance has appeared to soften since the official results were released and Mugabe's party said he would take part.
On Friday, Tsvangirai's deputy, Tendai Biti, acknowledged that skipping a second round could result in another term for Mugabe.
Biti told reporters in Johannesburg that the only way out of the impasse was a power-sharing government led by Tsvangirai, but with no role for Mugabe.
Biti also said a run-off would be illegal and there could not be one "for the simple and good reasons that the country is burning" amid violence and economic collapse from rampant inflation.
International observers have questioned whether a run-off would be legitimate, given the violence the opposition has faced.
The opposition's leaders, including Biti and Tsvangirai, have been staying out of Zimbabwe for fear of arrest.
The New York-based Human Rights Watch said: "The ruling Zanu-PF party, the army and so-called war veterans have conducted a brutal state-sponsored campaign of violence, torture and intimidation against (opposition] activists and supporters." The group said limits on the opposition's access to the media and questions about the impartiality of electoral officials have also not been addressed.
"The ruling party's bloody crackdown on the opposition makes a free and fair run-off vote a tragic joke," Georgette Gagnon, Human Rights Watch's Africa director, said in the statement.
In a separate statement, Unicef said there were growing reports of children fleeing their homes with their families as a result of political violence, and aid groups were finding it increasingly difficult to operate.
Mugabe's officials have denied fomenting political violence, instead accusing the opposition of being behind the widespread unrest.
The full article contains 476 words and appears in Scotland On Sunday newspaper.
