JOHANNESBURG—South African ruling party leader Jacob Zuma criticised on Tuesday the decision to delay the release of results from the presidential election in neighbouring Zimbabwe.
"I don't think it augurs very well," Zuma said in an interview with the South African Broadcasting Corporation, according to the South African Press Association. He added that it was wrong to keep Zimbabweans and the world in suspense.
The African National Congress leader's remarks came one day after he met Morgan Tsvangirai, the leader of the Movement for Democratic Change, the main opposition party in Zimbabwe. Their meeting took place in Johannesburg.
Tsvangirai says he won the presidential vote and should be declared president immediately, ending the 28-year rule of Mugabe, whose critics accuse him of reducing a once prosperous nation to misery.
Zimbabwe has inflation of more than 100,000 percent—the highest in the world—an unemployment rate above 80 percent and chronic shortages of food and fuel. Millions have fled abroad, most of them to South Africa.
Mugabe's ruling ZANU-PF is pressing for a delay in issuing the presidential results pending a recount and is also alleging abuses by electoral officials in an attempt to overturn its first defeat in a parliamentary poll.
Tsvangirai has warned that Mugabe's ruling ZANU-PF is preparing to use intimidation to remain in power and has called on the international community to get involved before the economically devastated African nation descends into bloodshed.
Although Zuma has no formal position in the South African government, he is the frontrunner to succeed President Thabo Mbeki and his role as ANC leader gives him influence in the development of the party's domestic and foreign policies.
Some analysts expected the new ANC leader to take a tougher stand on Zimbabwe after defeating President Thabo Mbeki for the leadership late last year. Zuma won with strong support of trade unions that have been sharply critical of Mugabe's government.
But in an interview with the Wall Street Journal carried out before the March 29 Zimbabwe election, Zuma said that South Africa should continue Mbeki's controversial policy of quiet engagement with Mugabe to find a solution to his northern neighbour's crisis.
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