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Zimbabwe: Country Sets Sights On July Poll Date
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Business Day (Johannesburg)
15 May 2008
Posted to the web 15 May 2008
Dumisani Muleya
Johannesburg
A RUNOFF presidential election will be held in late July, the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission said yesterday.
The announcement has been made after several delays. Presidential poll results were announced on May 2, and the runoff between President Robert Mugabe and opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) leader Morgan Tsvangirai now will be held 90 days from that date.
Neither won a big enough majority, hence the runoff.
There are growing fears that the stalemate caused by the long delay in the release of the results of the March 29 elections will continue, and that violence will increase before the runoff poll.
It is understood that the Southern African Development Community (SADC) is so concerned about the continuing violence it wants to call another emergency summit to discuss the crisis in Zimbabwe.
The body is concerned that conditions for a free and fair runoff do not exist.
"At the moment we can't say the playing ground is safe or will be fair, but we are there to create a conducive environment," SADC executive secretary Tomaz Salomao said.
SA has also said the environment was not conducive to a safe vote. At least 33 people -- mainly MDC activists -- are said to have been killed since the elections and several organisations, including a team of retired South African generals, have uncovered state-sponsored terror.
The head of a pro-government lawyers group, Martin Dinha, said yesterday that Mugabe should declare a state of emergency and delay the runoff because Zimbabwe was "at war" with foreign powers fronted by "local puppets".
Sources said Mugabe wanted the election in three weeks, but the electoral commission has no money and logistical capacity to arrange the runoff. The government needs $60m to fund the election.
MDC spokesman Nelson Chamisa said the postponement of the election was "illegal and self-serving".
Tsvangirai has confirmed his participation in the runoff on condition that international monitors and observers, as well as peacekeepers, be allowed in the country. The government has rejected this. Tsvangirai is expected to return home on Friday after more than a month in Botswana and SA.
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By the time of the runoff, Mugabe will have remained in power for almost four months without a popular mandate.
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