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This article participates on the following special index pages:
2008 harmonised elections - Index of articles
Zimbabwe
election monitor predicts lead for Tsvangirai
Monsters and Critics
March 31, 2008
Read this story
on the Monsters and Critics website
An independent Zimbabwe
election monitoring group on Monday predicted Movement for Democratic
Change (MDC) leader Morgan Tsvangirai would take 49.4 per cent of
the vote in the country's presidential elections, against 41.8 for
President Robert Mugabe and 8.2 per cent for former finance minister
Simba Makoni.
The estimate
from the Zimbabwe
Election Support Network (ZESN), based on a random sample of
results from 435 polling stations nationwide, contrasted with the
MDC's claim to have taken 60 per cent of the vote in Saturday's
synchronized presidential, parliamentary and local elections.
The margin of error of
the sample was 2.4 per cent, according to ZESN chairman Noel Kututwa
- meaning if the estimate were accurate Tsvangirai could still scrape
together the 50 per cent plus one ballot he would need to avoid
a run-off against Mugabe.
Some 8,000 trained ZESN
observers observed the elections. The estimate is based on unofficial
results posted outside polling stations.
'We felt it was important
to release these projections now so that the public knows what is
going on,' Kututwa said.
'The public is anxious,'
Kututwa said, referring to the snail's pace at which the Zimbabwe
Election Commission is releasing results.
ZEC has only
announced results from 52 of 210 seats in parliament's lower House
of Assembly, showing Mugabe's Zanu-PF taking 26 seats, against 25
for Tsvangirai's MDC faction and 1 for a smaller MDC faction led
by Arthur Mutambara.
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