GEORGE Chiweshe . . . ZEC chairman

HARARE – Zimbabwe Electoral Commission (ZEC) on Tuesday pleaded for more time to count votes for a presidential election held three days ago.

The commission has not released results for the presidential poll in which President Robert Mugabe faced his toughest challenge yet from longtime rival Morgan Tsvangirai and former finance minister Simba Makoni.

ZEC chief elections officer Lovemore Sekeremayi said the commission was still receiving results of the presidential vote from across the country and would soon begin verifying the results in the presence of candidates or their agents.

"The verification and collation of these (results) will commence in the presence of all candidates or their national chief election agents, once all the results have been received,” said Sekeramayi.

He added: "We therefore would like to urge the nation to remain patient as we go through this meticulous verification process.

“The commission would, further, like to commend the electorate for showing political maturity and tolerance before, during and after polls. We urge you to continue in that spirit."

Only partial results for the House of Assembly election had been released by close of business on Tuesday. The results show Mugabe’s ruling ZANU PF party with 63 seats against the main opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) party’s 62 seats, in an election that appears firmly headed for a very close finish.

There are 130 constituencies whose results have been declared so far, which is nearly two thirds of the 210-seat House of Assembly.

There are 80 more seats to be declared, many of them in ZANU PF’s traditional rural support base but analysts are convinced the ruling party can hope to beat the Morgan Tsvangirai-led MDC only by just a few seats.

A smaller faction of the MDC led by academic Arthur Mutambara has so far grabbed five seats in rural areas.

The Tsvangirai-led MDC says figures collated by its own people shows it winning against ZANU PF and the opposition party has accused the ZEC of delaying the issuing of the results in a desperate attempt to fix the vote in favour of Mugabe’s government.

With no results whatsoever on the presidential poll, projections by civic groups and speculation by the media has filled in the gap. 

For example the independent Zimbabwe Election Support Network (ZESN) has said its projections show, Tsvangirai taking 49.4 percent of the presidential vote against Mugabe’s 41.8 percent with Makoni winning 8.2 percent. Such a result would mean a second round run-off between Tsvangirai and Mugabe to determine eventual winner.

Unnamed ZANU PF officials have been quoted by international media as having said that projections by the ruling party showed Tsvangirai getting 48.3 percent, against Mugabe's 43 percent, with Makoni taking eight percent – a scenario that would also lead to a run-off.

Tsvangirai and Makoni’s camps have indicated they would close ranks behind one candidate in the event of a run-off.

The elections, billed Zimbabwe’s most important since independence from Britain 28 years ago, have been held amid an acute recession blamed on state mismanagement and seen in the world’s highest inflation of more than 100 000 percent, spiraling poverty, shortages of food and every basic commodity.

Political analysts say support from the military and a skewed political playing field that disadvantages the opposition are enough to ensure victory for Mugabe’s government despite an economic crisis that the World Bank has described as the worst in the world outside a war zone.

Meanwhile international pressure continues mounting on Mugabe’s government to expedite the release of results, with the United States and Britain leading the call on the ZEC to stop delaying results.

Current European Union (EU) president, Slovenia, has also urged the Zimbabwean authorities to urgently disclose the winners of the weekend presidential, parliamentary and local government election.

"This would end the current uncertainty and prevent the risk of rising tensions," the EU's Slovenian presidency said in a statement.

Washington called on the ZEC to stop delaying results and urged Mugabe’s government to respect the outcome of the poll if the opposition won.

Zimbabwe’s military commanders said during the run-up to the polls that they were prepared to salute Mugabe only, in what was seen as a threat to stage a coup in the event the veteran leader lost.

"We want to see the presidential vote count be released as soon as possible. Delays in that vote counting and delays in the release of the results are troubling, certainly given all the problems that we noted prior to the election," State Department spokesman Tom Casey told reporters. – ZimOnline.