Mugabe Moves to Bolster Himself for Runoff
Zimbabwe's Ruling Party Demands a Recount Before Official Tally Is Announced

Washington Post Foreign Service
Monday, April 7, 2008

HARARE, Zimbabwe, April 6 -- President Robert Mugabe's loyalists on Sunday demanded a recount of the results of the March 29 presidential election, mobilized feared militias and warned peasant farmers that whites were massing on Zimbabwe's borders, ready to re-colonize the nation if the opposition wins a runoff.

The flurry of moves showed how Mugabe, 84, has reclaimed the initiative since his election loss to opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai, when even some of the president's closest associates were urging him to step down after 28 years in power.

Instead, Mugabe is preparing to contest a runoff with tactics that have served him well in the past. News reports of invasions of at least 10 white-owned commercial farms Sunday were reminiscent of 2000, when Mugabe, fresh from a loss in a constitutional referendum, endorsed a chaotic and frequently violent land redistribution that bolstered his support ahead of crucial parliamentary elections.

Then as now, the effort was initiated by veterans of Zimbabwe's liberation war, still loyal to Mugabe from his days as leader of the guerrilla army in the 1970s.

But with the vast majority of white-owned commercial farms already seized and resettled by black peasants, this round of threats appeared focused mainly on shaping the political debate heading into a second round of voting.

Government-owned newspapers and broadcasts have repeatedly warned that Tsvangirai intends to reverse the land redistribution program -- a charge Tsvangirai has repeatedly denied. But the allegation has begun to gain currency in Zimbabwe's vast rural areas, long Mugabe's most important source of support.

"I've heard that they want to come take the land, but I'll fight if they do that," said Menard Chiuya, 40, who received 15 acres of land east of Harare, the capital, as a result of the land invasions.

The ruling party also continued to challenge the electoral results. Opposition forces narrowly won a historic majority in the nation's 210-seat lower house of parliament, but Mugabe's party has alleged a miscount and threatened to "purge" the electoral commission of opposition sympathizers. The party also is challenging the results in enough contests to potentially maintain control of parliament.

The Sunday Mail, part of the network of government propaganda organs, said Mugabe's party also was demanding a recount of the presidential results, even though they have not yet been announced. An independent monitoring group has said that Tsvangirai won, but perhaps not by the simple majority he would need to avoid a second round.

Both ruling party and opposition officials give similar accounts of the results, which are posted at polling stations, but they disagree on the margin of Tsvangirai's victory. The opposition says its tallies show no need for a runoff; the ruling party says one must happen.

No date has been set for a second round of voting or for releasing official results. A ruling on an opposition court petition to compel the announcement of results was postponed until Monday.

Nelson Chamisa, spokesman for Tsvangirai's party, called the ruling party's demand for a recount "nonsense."

"How can you have a recount when the results haven't even been released?" he said.

With a second round of voting looming, signs grew that independent candidate Simba Makoni, who by all accounts got less than 10 percent of the first-round votes, was preparing to endorse Tsvangirai. Makoni was a longtime member of the ruling party's inner circle but publicly split with Mugabe in February.

Makoni adviser Kudzai Mbudzi, a retired military officer and former ruling party official, said Makoni would endorse any candidate seeking to unseat Mugabe. Mbudzi said the president already was unleashing political violence, with the help of the military, to bolster his chances in a runoff.

Several foreigners, including New York Times correspondent Barry Bearak, remained in jail Sunday. One other foreign journalist also remains in custody, and several others have been temporarily detained by police during the election season.

Zimbabwe denied permission for most news organizations and observer groups based outside Africa to cover the election.