Zimbabwe Presidential Election Held March 29th

From The Times (UK), 1 May, 2008

Leaked poll results show that Mugabe lost – but will fight second round

Catherine Philp in Harare

Senior government officials in Zimbabwe leaked results yesterday for last month’s presidential elections, which apparently hand victory to the main opposition leader – but not by enough votes to win outright. The news sets the scene for a bruising election run-off. According to the officials, Morgan Tsvangirai won 47 per cent of the vote against President Mugabe’s 43 per cent. He needed more than 50 per cent to avoid a second round. Mr Tsvangirai, leader of the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC), claimed to have won 50.3 per cent of the vote based on results published at polling stations, but a month later the official tally has still not been released, prompting accusations of vote rigging against the Government. The figures leaked yesterday – a day before the candidates’ agents were due to begin verifying results – suggest that the margin of Mr Tsvangirai’s victory was too large for the Government to overturn credibly.