HARARE, MAY 2:Zimbabwe’s opposition Movement for Democratic Change said on Friday it would reject results of a presidential election that have been shown to candidates by electoral officials.

Morgan Tsvangirai of the Movement for Democratic Change has won the first round of a presidential election with 47.9 per cent of the vote and Robert Mugabe won 43.2 per cent of the vote and since neither candidate won more than 50 per cent, a second round run-off will have to be held, Lovemore Sekeramayi, chief elections officer, told reporters in Harare.

The opposition insists Tsvangirai won the vote outright. “It appears the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission is determined to announce its result but certainly it will be rejected by us. It will be rejected because we will have not finished the process,” said Tsvangirai’s representative Chris Mbanga.

“There is that urgency to announce the result but we will not be part of it,” he told reporters during an adjournment in a process to verify the poll results which began on Thursday.

Under Zimbabwe election law, the run-off has to be held within 21 days after the announcement of the result. Former finance minister Simba Makoni, widely expected to back Tsvangirai in any run-off, came third in the vote.

Tsvangirai’s Movement for Democratic Change has claimed an outright victory over Mugabe in the March 29 election based on its own calculations.

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