Zimbabwe: Opposition Claims Outright Election Victory

2 April 2008
allAfrica.com
By John Allen

Cape Town — Zimbabwe's Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) claims that its leader, Morgan Tsvangirai, has won an outright victory in the country's presidential elections. But it says that if the official election commission forces a second round run-off, it will nevertheless take part.

At a news conference in Harare Tuesday afternoon, MDC secretary-general Tendai Biti, said the MDC's figures from polling stations showed that Tsvangirai won 50.3 percent of the vote and President Robert Mugabe 43.8 percent.

Biti called on Mugabe to concede the election. Going to a second round would be "delaying the inevitable," he said, but if it happened the MDC would participate "under protest."

A live broadcast of the news conference was monitored in South Africa.

Tagged:
Copyright © 2008 allAfrica.com. All rights reserved. Distributed by AllAfrica Global Media (allAfrica.com). To contact the copyright holder directly for corrections — or for permission to republish or make other authorized use of this material, click here.

AllAfrica publishes around 600 reports a day from more than 100 news organizations and over 500 other institutions and individuals, representing a diversity of positions on every topic. We publish news and views ranging from vigorous opponents of governments to government publications and spokespersons. Publishers named above each report are responsible for their own content, which AllAfrica does not have the legal right to edit or correct.

Articles and commentaries that identify allAfrica.com as the publisher are produced or commissioned by AllAfrica. To address comments or complaints, please Contact us.