Zimbabwe's election officials said the presidential runoff between President Robert Mugabe and opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai will be held by July 31, but the opposition insisted on Thursday that it should be held next week.
An official government notice issued late on Wednesday extended the deadline for holding the runoff to 90 days after the release of election results. That will be considerably longer than the legally required 21 days.
However, speaking at a news conference in the South African city of Johannesburg on Thursday, Tendai Biti, Secretary General of the opposition Movement for Democratic Change, said 90 days was too long.
"This country can't afford 90 days. People are dying of hunger, people have no jobs, people have no food. Over 5-thousand Zimbabweans daily attempt to cross the crocodile infested Limpopo (river separating Zimbabwe from South Africa) into South Africa."
Biti called on the Southern African Development Community to hold an emergency summit to address the opposition's call for a runoff by May 23, and for the regional organization to guarantee security, fairness and freedom of the vote.
He said the opposition remained determined to participate in the runoff.
Tsvangirai claims he won the presidential race outright after the March 29 poll, beating Mugabe and two other candidates. (Www.hxen.net)
But official results released on May 2 show that he did not win enough votes to avoid a second round against Mugabe. |
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