Zimbabwe’s presidential poll results announced on Friday “lack credibility”, Britain’s Foreign Office said, adding that a second round could not be fair unless more international monitors were present.
Opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai was finally declared the winner of the March 29 vote but fell just short of toppling incumbent Robert Mugabe.
“The election results released five weeks after polling day lack credibility but it’s clear that at least 60 percent of the population voted for change in Zimbabwe,” a Foreign Office spokesperson told AFP.
“President Mugabe’s campaign of violence and intimidation, coupled with the arrest of 99 electoral commission officials in the last month, show exactly how (his ruling party) Zanu-PF would approach any second round.
“Without an immediate end to violence and the introduction of a wider range of international monitors and in much greater numbers than were present for the first, no second round could be free and fair.”
Nearly five weeks after polling day, Zimbabwe’s electoral commission announced that Tsvangirai, leader of the Movement for Democratic Change, had won 47.9% against 43.2% for the 84-year-old Mugabe and the pair will now face off in a run-off on a date yet to be announced.
A third candidate, former finance minister Simba Makoni, won 8.3% and now drops out of the contest.
(Source)