ZIMBABWE:ZAMBIA YESTERDAY called an emergency meeting of the Southern African Development Community for next Saturday in Lusaka at which Zimbabwe's disputed elections will be discussed amid fears of spreading violence and an exodus of refugees.
The move represents the first significant intervention by African leaders since the crisis began and follows repeated calls by Zimbabwe's main opposition, the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC), for outside intervention.
The Zimbabwe Electoral Commission has refused to release the results from the March 29th election despite numerous calls to do so by regional and international leaders over the past 11 days. The high court will rule next Monday on an MDC application to force release of the result, the judge said yesterday. "Conscious of the urgency of the matter, I am of the view that if I exert myself to study the submissions, I should be ready with a judgment on Monday," Judge Tendai Uchena said.
A lawyer for the commission had told the high court it would be "dangerous" for it to order release of presidential results because outside parties may try to interfere. George Chikumbirike told the judge: "It would be dangerous in my view to give an order because it might not be complied with . . . because of outside exigencies which [ the commission] will be unable to control."
Initially, the commission blamed technical difficulties for the delay, but many analysts now maintain that President Robert Mugabe is trying to delay announcement of the results pending a recount, which his Zanu-PF party has called for.
Mr Chikumbirike would not elaborate on the identity of the outside parties; however, it appears they are linked to the ruling regime and its attempts to have Mr Mugabe re-elected for a sixth term as the country's president.
The main opposition MDC said its leader Morgan Tsvangirai has won more than the 50 per cent plus one vote needed to be declared Zimbabwe's next president, thus ending Mr Mugabe's 28-year reign.
However, the ruling party denies this is the case and appears to be gearing up for a second round head-to-head between Mr Mugabe and Mr Tsvangirai, indicating it believes that neither candidate secured the necessary majority for outright victory.
As the MDC was fighting its case in the Harare high court, party leader Morgan Tsvangirai was meeting regional leaders outside the country in what appears to be an attempt to garner support for the MDC's claim of electoral victory. "I will be going around the countries in the region to make that point that [ southern Africa] does not need that political chaos and dislocation on their doorstep," Mr Tsvangirai said.
Although South Africa's president, Thabo Mbeki, has continued with his "quiet diplomacy" approach to Zimbabwe's crisis, the man who took over from him as leader of the country's ruling African National Congress (ANC) party last November has broken ranks with the tactic.
After meeting Mr Tsvangirai on Monday, Jacob Zuma, a man many believe will be the country's next president, told Johannesburg's Star newspaper: "I think the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission should have announced results by now.The Zimbabwean elections have become an international issue. We all expected that once the elections were finished, results would be announced. Now there are suspicions from the people."