Mugabe demands a "recount"

Mugabe demands recount
IOL 7/4/2008
Harare - After more than a week without the crucial results of the presidential election, the ruling Zanu-PF has demanded a recount and instructed the Zimbabwean Electoral Commission to delay announcing the outcome indefinitely ... deputy chair of the commission, Joyce Laetitia Kazembe, said on Saturday that the presidential results would be announced "soon". Speaking live on television on Saturday night, the deputy chief electoral officer, Utoile Selaigwana, said the commission would announce the presidential results shortly after it had released the results for the senate elections. More than 24 hours later, there has been no word from the Electoral Commission and there is no sign of activity at its command centre ... state-run Sunday Mail reported that Zanu-PF had asked the electoral commission to recount and audit all its electoral material following what the ruling party described as "anomalies" and discrepancies ... MDC spokesperson Nelson Chimasa said Zanu-PF was becoming desperate. "(The recount) is a ridiculous demand. Legally it is not possible - they should have challenged the counting within 24 hours of the elections," he said. "It's an act of desperation... You cannot demand a recount of election results you don't know ... In a tacit acknowledgement on Friday that Zanu-PF had not won the elections, the party's politburo - its most powerful structure - said President Robert Mugabe was preparing for a run-off against MDC leader Morgan Tsvangirai ... Militant Zanu-PF supporters have invaded five of the few remaining white-owned commercial farms yesterday, driving three cattle ranchers off their land in the southern Masvingo district ... Several foreign journalists, Barry Bearak of the New York Times among them, were arrested last week in police raids on their hotels. They remained in custody on Sunday. They had been charged with "illegally observing an election without official accreditation", their lawyer, Beatrice Mtetwa, said ...