HARARE—Ballots from 23 constituencies in Zimbabwe's election will be recounted in a week's time, an electoral official said on Sunday, raising the possibility an opposition victory in the parliamentary poll could be reversed.
The result of the March 29 presidential vote has still not been announced but officials said more than a week ago that President Robert Mugabe's ZANU-PF party had lost control of parliament for the first time in his 28-year rule.
The opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) says its leader Morgan Tsvangirai won the presidential poll. It has rejected any recount.
A Zimbabwe Electoral Commission (ZEC) official, who asked not to be named, said there would be recounts of the votes for both presidential and parliamentary polls in 23 constituencies where there were allegations of poll abuse.
The state-owned Sunday Mail newspaper said the recount would be carried out on Saturday after 22 complaints over the polling process by ZANU-PF and one by the MDC.
The MDC has a two-seat majority in the lower house of parliament after the election but the combined opposition tally totals 12 more than ZANU-PF.
The announcement came as regional leaders met in Zambia to discuss the two-week delay in releasing the presidential election result that has raised fears of violence in the southern African nation, where the economy has collapsed.
The recount was likely to increase tension in Zimbabwe over the delay. The MDC has accused Mugabe of trying to rig the vote and intimidate its supporters with a systematic campaign of violence by his militias.
MDC spokesman Nelson Chamisa told Reuters: "We have already said that we will not accept any recount because for us that is accepting rigged results. They had custody of the ballot boxes for two weeks and they must have stuffed them with their votes."
Zimbabwe's High Court was due to rule on Monday on a MDC application to force the electoral commission to release the presidential result.
Economic Collapse
Many Zimbabweans had hoped the vote would begin a recovery from the economic collapse, marked by the world's worst rate of hyper-inflation at more than 100,000 percent.
A summit of the 14-nation Southern African Development Community (SADC) in neighboring Zambia overran by more than five hours into the early hours of Sunday.
A Zambian official, who asked not to be named, told Reuters the delay was caused by a disagreement over the wording of the final communique.
"Some leaders feel that including the word crisis would be inappropriate while others say the extraordinary (summit) in itself shows there is a crisis in Zimbabwe," he said.
South African President Thabo Mbeki said after meeting Mugabe en route to the summit that there was no election crisis. This conflicted with the views of some other regional leaders.
Mugabe did not attend the meeting, but it was addressed by Tsvangirai.
Zambian President Levy Mwanawasa, SADC's current chairman, called the summit after a chorus of international demands for Mugabe to release the result.
"SADC can no longer continue to stand by and do nothing when one of its members is experiencing political and economic difficulties," he said in an opening speech.
Mbeki, who has consistently favored a softer line with Mugabe, said the election process was proceeding normally.
"I wouldn't describe that as a crisis," Mbeki told reporters after his meeting with Mugabe in Harare.
"We have to wait for ZEC to release (the results)," said Mbeki, echoing Mugabe's own stance on the unusually long delay.
The MDC and Western powers say Mugabe is holding back the result so he can prepare for a run-off against Tsvangirai.
Mugabe dismissed a remark by British Prime Minister Gordon Brown that the world was losing patience. "If Brown is the world, sure, he will lose patience. I know Brown as a little tiny dot on this planet," said Mugabe.
Feeds