The Scotsman
ZIMBABWE'S opposition last night challenged Robert Mugabe to a second round of voting in the presidential elections – but warned that he was set for an "embarrassing" defeat.
Mr Mugabe, 84, faced deepening humiliation yesterday after his party lost its parliamentary majority for the first time since independence.
Riot police with batons patrolled the streets of the capital, Harare, as official results from the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission (ZEC) gave the opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) 105 seats to 94 for Mr Mugabe's Zanu-PF. A breakaway MDC faction took nine seats, while one seat went to an independent candidate.
This means that even if Zanu-PF wins all the outstanding seats, it will not have the 106 needed to retain control of the 210-seat parliament.
In the past, Mr Mugabe has used his party's majority to bulldoze highly controversial laws – such as the seizure of white-owned land – through parliament.
Months before the elections, Mr Mugabe pushed through amendments to the constitution increasing the number of parliamentary seats by 60, intending to cement his stranglehold on the chamber. Yesterday, however, the full scale of his miscalculations became apparent.
Security forces were put on full alert as the opposition claimed Morgan Tsvangirai, the MDC leader, had beaten Mr Mugabe in the presidential poll with 50.3 per cent of the vote.
"Put simply, he has won this election," Tendai Biti, general-secretary of the MDC, said. "Morgan Richard Tsvangirai is the next president of the Republic of Zimbabwe without a run-off."
Mr Biti said Mr Tsvangirai would agree to contest in a second round of voting if official results show he narrowly failed to get the 50 per cent plus one vote needed for victory.
Independent forecasts that suggest Mr Tsvangirai may get 49 per cent of the vote, with a humiliating 43 per cent for Mr Mugabe, who has been in power since 1980
Zimbabwe's electoral laws say a run-off has to be held within three weeks.
Mr Biti added: "We are not usurping the powers of ZEC.
"If anything, there will actually be an embarrassing margin in favour of the opposition in the run-off. It's just a delaying of the inevitable. Everyone in Zimbabwe is ready for change."
Mr Biti urged Mr Mugabe to concede defeat to save himself embarrassment.
However, Bright Matonga, Mr Mugabe's deputy information minister said: "President Mugabe is going nowhere. We are not going to be pressurised into anything."
Meanwhile, Gordon Brown yesterday expressed his concerns over the delay in the announcement of official results from Saturday's poll, warning that "the world is watching Zimbabwe".
The Prime Minister added: "It's very important that the election results are published as soon as possible and that there is no further delay.
"We will be vigilant in what we do. Of course, what we want to see is that the whole of the Zimbabwean people can be guaranteed that the elections are fair and are seen to be fair and we get the democratic outcome that the people of Zimbabwe have chosen.
"That's what we are looking for and that's what we want to happen as soon as possible."
David Miliband, the Foreign Secretary, told the House of Commons: "A delay in announcing the outcome can only be seen as a deliberate and calculated tactic."
In a sign that even those closest to Mr Mugabe are beginning to lose faith in him, Zimbabwean state media for the first time acknowledged that he had probably lost the polls.
The official Herald newspaper, which is closely controlled by Mr Mugabe's official spokesman, stated: "The pattern of results in the presidential election show that none of the candidates will garner more than 50 per cent of the vote, forcing a re-run."
Before the election, Mr Mugabe declared he could not stomach a run-off because elections were not "a football field".
Actions point to rising desperation as power slips away
THERE are signs that Mr Mugabe is growing increasingly desperate as layers of power are stripped away from him.
Unconfirmed reports yesterday said Thabo Mbeki, the South African president, secretly flew to Harare on Tuesday to try to persuade the president to accept the inevitable.
On the streets of the capital, there are rumours that Mr Mugabe's wife Grace and children Bona, Chatunga and Robert junior have already fled the country, possibly for Malaysia.
Meanwhile, it emerged yesterday that seven of Mr Mugabe's ministers had lost their seats.
Among the political heavyweights to be voted out of parliament were Patrick Chinamasa, the justice minister who is a relative of the president.
Oppah Muchinguri, the women's affairs minister who is rumoured to have had a relationship with Mr Mugabe during the bush war of the 1970s, lost her seat in Mutasa Central, as did the man who repeatedly predicted bumper harvests in the barren years following Zimbabwe's white land invasions, former lands minister Joseph Made.
Feared war veterans leader Joseph Chinotimba – famed for his scarecrow hat – also lost to the MDC in the Buhera South constituency, despite dishing out wheelchairs ahead of the polls.
Analysts warned Mr Mugabe might not be able to accept "the ultimate defeat" of a re-run.
"He is a very proud person," veteran Zimbabwe journalist William Saidi said of Mr Mugabe. "He must be in a real stew."
Mr Saidi, the deputy editor of the private Standard newspaper said: "The prospect of a run-off, especially to a man he despises, may be totally unacceptable to Mr Mugabe."
Constantine Chiwenga, the defence forces commander, is fiercely opposed to Mr Mugabe stepping down, sources said.
There are indications the regime is preparing for a frantic three-week vote-buying and intimidation campaign, with the surprise announcement yesterday that tax bands had been widened to "cushion" low-income workers.
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