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Tsvangirai won't say if he'll take part in runoff until election date set
International Herald Tribune
May 05, 2008

http://www.iht.com/articles/ap/2008/05/05/africa/AF-GEN-Zimbabwe.php

Zimbabwe's opposition leader has decided whether he will participate in a presidential runoff, but won't make his choice public until electoral officials set an election date, an aide said Monday.

Movement for Democratic Change leader Morgan Tsvangirai's options: concede the second round to long-term, increasingly autocratic President Robert Mugabe; or try to run a campaign in an atmosphere so violent that the opposition chief does not feel safe in his own country.

"We have a decision," Tsvangirai's spokesman George Sibotshiwe told The Associated Press Monday. "But we will only announce it when (the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission) announces the date of the election."

Attempts to reach electoral commission officials, who announced Friday a runoff would be necessary because neither Mugabe nor Tsvangirai won a simple majority in March, were not immediately successful Monday. Deputy Information Minister Bright Matonga said last week the constitution requires a second round no sooner than 21 days from the announcement of the results, and no later than a year.

Tsvangirai was in Johannesburg in neighboring South Africa, Sibotshiwe said, adding the leader would make no comment himself Monday. Tsvangirai has been traveling in his homeland's neighbors since the first round, saying his priority is rallying international support but acknowledging he could be arrested or attacked should he go home.

Tsvangirai has claimed he won outright on March 29 and party officials dismissed as fraudulent Friday's official announcement that he got the most votes, but not enough to avoid a second round. Tsvangirai's party and independent rights groups have accused Mugabe of having delayed the official results while his army and party militants mounted a campaign of violence and intimidation intended to undermine support for the opposition before any runoff. Zimbabwe's neighbors called on the government to guarantee security during the second round, according to a statement issued Monday after a weekend meeting in Angola of the Southern African Development Community's political, defense and security committee.

On Sunday, the Roman Catholic Justice and Peace Commission protested political violence and called on the United Nations and African Union to supervise the runoff.

In a statement to coincide with Sunday services, the Catholic human rights body said the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission could no longer be relied on as a "neutral and nonpartisan electoral umpire" after its five-week delay in announcing final results. The Catholic group also cited witness reports of politically motivated murder, abduction and torture.

Also Sunday, the Progressive Teachers Union said teachers, who have traditionally acted as election officers, had been targeted in the political violence. The union said the attacks on teachers were meant to instill fear and prevent them from participating as polling officers in the runoff.

"Whoever is calling himself the government should act to stop violence in schools or we will be forced to act," the union said, threatening a nationwide strike.

Human Rights Watch said last week it had received reports that more than 100 polling station officers — most of them teachers and low-ranking civil servants — had been detained in an eastern province. The New York-based watchdog described that as an indication the government and its loyalists were targeting those seen as betraying Mugabe.

Mugabe's officials have denied fomenting political violence, instead accusing the opposition of being behind the unrest.

Mugabe, 84, was hailed at independence in 1980 for promoting racial reconciliation and bringing education and health care to the black majority. But in recent years he has been accused of holding onto power through elections that independent observers say were marred by fraud, intimidation and rigging.

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