By KUNA
Kuwait : Zimbabwe’s main opposition, the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC), is to go to court shortly in a bid to force electoral officials to release the presidential election result, the BBC said Saturday.
It quoted an MDC spokesman as saying the opposition wanted the electoral commission to publish the result of last Saturday’s poll within four hours of a court order.
The party believes its leader, Morgan Tsvangirai, defeated President Robert Mugabe in the ballot.
Mugabe’s own party has said it will back him if a run-off is called.
Announcing the suit to be filed at Harare High Court, MDC spokesman Nelson Chamisa said the delay in reporting the result was unjustified.
It was, he added, creating “a lot of anxiety… among the opposition, the nation at large and the international community.” The suit is due to be filed early on Saturday morning.
On Friday, leaders of the ruling Zanu-PF party backed Mugabe’s participation in a possible run-off.
There had been speculation he would stand aside rather than face a second poll.
Zanu-PF also said it would call for recounts for 16 seats in the parliamentary elections.
If successfully contested, these would be enough for the party to regain the majority it lost for the first time since 1980.
The MDC says its candidate, Morgan Tsvangirai, took 50.3 percent of the vote, just over the 50 percent needed to avoid a run-off. An independent projection says Tsvangirai gained 49 percent, just below the threshold, with Mugabe on 42 percent.
There is fear that a second round — which would be expected to take place within three weeks — could lead to a resurgence of the violence and intimidation that has been a characteristic of past elections in Zimbabwe.
The ruling party remains divided, the BBC says, with many who would still like to see a change of leadership, knowing that under Mugabe, Zimbabwe has no future.
On Friday, hundreds of Zanu-PF supporters — some of them veterans from the war against white rule that led to independence — marched through the capital, Harare.
Mugabe, 84, came to power 28 years ago at independence on a wave of optimism. But in recent years Zimbabwe has been plagued by the world’s highest inflation, as well as acute food and fuel shortages, which correspondents say have driven many voters to back the opposition.