Zimbabwe prepares to verify count


Morgan Tsvangirai says he won the election and Mugabe should step down



Zimbabwe's Electoral Commission is due to start verifying the country's delayed presidential election results.
Representatives from both the governing Zanu-PF and the opposition Movement for Democratic Change will oversee the collating process in Harare.
There is no indication when the result of March's election will be announced.
The MDC have downplayed official reports that Morgan Tsvangirai had defeated President Robert Mugabe while failing to secure an outright victory.
Human rights groups and the opposition say the ruling party is behind a wave of attacks on opposition activists that would make a fair run-off impossible.
Electoral commission chief George Chiweshe urged representatives for the candidates to attend Thursday afternoon's consultation at the Harare International Conference Centre.
He said the rival parties could compare results they had gathered at individual polling stations with the results compiled by the electoral commission in order to agree on the final results.
'Evil fraud'
The opposition criticised what it said appeared to be a government leak of some results.
MDC spokesman Nelson Chamisa said reports that his party leader had won 47% of the presidential vote to Mr Mugabe's 43% appeared to be a rumour spread by the government to prepare people for a run-off.
The old trick of claiming human rights violations when somebody steps on your toe yet you yourself are poking out other people's eyes will not work


Augustine Chihuri
Zimbabwe police chief



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The MDC insists Mr Tsvangirai won the 29 March presidential election outright and that a run-off is unnecessary.
But independent observers and Mr Mugabe's allies say a run-off may be needed as no candidate gained more than 50% of the vote.
Zimbabwe's information minister and government spokesman Sikhanyiso Ndlovu said he was not aware of any election results urging people to wait for the ZEC to provide results.
The state-owned Herald newspaper is reporting that the police are now keen to interview MDC secretary general Tendai Biti "for illegally declaring results ... in contravention of the Electoral Act".
Mr Biti and the party leader Mr Tsvangirai remain out of the country at present and have given no firm indication of when they plan to return home.
'Old trick'
Earlier Zimbabwe's influential police chief accused the opposition of trying to rig elections. Police Chief Augustine Chihuri said more than 100 cases of fraud by MDC agents had been found following last month's elections whose results have not yet been published.

Mr Chihuri a aaa backer of President Mugabe described the alleged fraud as "evil" and a new phenomenon. He also blamed the violence on those who were complaining.
"The old trick of claiming human rights violations when somebody steps on your toe yet you yourself are poking out other people's eyes will not work this time around" he said.
He said 108 suspects were helping the police over allegations of "evil" fraud.
Mr Chihuri is one of the Zimbabwean security chiefs who reportedly persuaded Mr Mugabe not to step down immediately after the 29 March elections.
Many of Zimbabwe's top security officials took part in the 1970s independence war and share the president's fiercely nationalistic outlook - blaming the country's problems on the West.
Before the election Mr Chihuri said he would not allow "puppets" to take over - seen as a reference to the MDC.
The MDC's Mr Chamisa says 20 people have now been killed in politically-motivated attacks in Zimbabwe since the polls.
Human Rights Watch (HRW) has accused the army of organising the attacks on MDC activists by providing weapons and transport. "We have seen incidents of people being made to lie on their stomachs. And brutally beaten on their backs and buttocks with logs thick logs with iron bars with huge rocks and stones" HRW researcher Tiseke Kasambala told the BBC. She blamed most of the violence on Mr Mugabe's Zanu-PF party but said there had been two cases of MDC revenge attacks which she warned could lead to "anarchy".