"Absolutely the candidate will be [Robert Gabriel] Mugabe, who else would it be other than our dear old man?" he said.
Zanu-PF on Saturday dismissed Tsvangirai's accusations that the it was planning to do all it could to ensure Mugabe was in power after any run-off.
'Peace-loving party'
"We are a peace-loving party and the people of Zimbabwe will not forgive anyone who foments violence," Patrick Chinamasa, Zanu-PF spokesman, said.
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Mugabe has signalled that he is willing to enter
into a run-off vote for the presidency [AFP] |
Tsvangirai said that the ruling party was recruiting militias to carry out a retribution campaign ahead of the possible second round vote.
"Tsvangirai also knows he will not win in the run-off. That is why he is trying to avoid it by claiming victory," Chinamasa said.
State television has reported that Mugabe supporters had seized one of Zimbabawe's few remaining white-owned farms in reaction to reports that whites were returning to reoccupy their land.
The incident came after the country's so-called war veterans - many of whom were born after independence in 1980 - vowed to occupt all the remaining white-owned farms in Masvingo province.
George Shire, a political analyst based in London, told Al Jazeera that the veterans position was "not an empty threat".
"The land issue is the central emotive conflictual issue in Zimbabwean politics... It is something that has dominated for the last century and which has influenced government ideologies," he said.
"This is not something that happened centuries ago - these are people who have lost their families, lost their relatives, lost their friends in a war about land."
Global pressureZimbabwe's opposition has called for international pressure to force Mugabe to accept defeat, fearing the president was seeking to exact revenge.
Thabo Mbeki, the South African president viewed as a power broker in the region, said on Saturday that the situation in Zimbabwe was "manageable".
"I think the situation so far is manageable," Mbeki said on the sidelines of an intergovernmental summit in Britain.
"I think there is time to wait. Let's see the outcome of the election results.
"If there is a re-run of the presidential election, let's see what comes out of that. I think that is the correct way to go."