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.

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