Zimbabwe opposition blocks recount
Court to rule on petition to stop vote recount that MDC says is to steal election.
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Independent tallies showed the MDC, led by Morgan Tsvangirai, winning 109 seats, and the ruling party trailing with 97.
The ruling party need only win back nine seats in the recount to regain control of parliament.
On Monday, a Zimbabwe high court is expected to rule on a separate opposition petition to force the release of the presidential vote results.
The state media quoted George Chiweshe, the electoral commission chairman, as saying that ballots would be counted again in the presence of party representatives, candidates and election observers next Saturday.
Nelson Chamisa, an MDC spokesman, said the recount was “designed to reverse the will of the people”.
Call for results
The call came after a 13-hour meeting of the Southern African Development Commission (SADC) in Zambia, which had been specially convened to discuss the political deadlock.
However, Biti urged Thabo Mbeki, South Africa’s president, to end his policy of so-called quiet diplomacy in mediating in Zimbabwe.
Mbeki must show “more vigour, more openness and a complete abandonment of the policy of quiet diplomacy”, he said.
SADC on Sunday called on Mbeki to continue as chief mediator between the MDC and the ruling Zanu-PF.
Mugabe did not attend the summit, after initially saying he would do so.
Mugabe’s allies had suggested that Saturday’s summit was part of a Western plot to overthrow him because of his land reform programme, which took white-owned farms and redistributed them to blacks.
“This time, African leaders are supposed to do the bidding of the white West, that is to pressure Zimbabwe to abet regime change agenda,” a column in the Herald newspaper said.