Partial recount due in Zim

Harare - Three weeks after Zimbabwe staged a general election, a partial recount was to begin on Saturday in a move that can see President Robert Mugabe's ruling party regain control of parliament.

The electoral commission, which was still to declare the outcome of the March 29 presidential election, was to begin recounting in 23 constituencies from 06:00 after a last-ditch opposition legal bid to block the process failed.

The recounts were being conducted after a string of complaints by Mugabe's Zanu-PF party of irregularities in the initial vote counting.

The Zimbabwe African National Union - Patriotic Front lost in 21 of the 23 constituencies under the microscope and would be hoping that a new count would leave it back in control of the 210-strong seat chamber.

'We'll not accept any recount'

The opposition Movement for Democratic Change, which had 109 seats against 97 for Zanu-PF, had denounced the recount as a ploy to steal back control of parliament and said it wouldn't accept the outcome.

"We as a party will not accept any recount in respect of parliamentary seats," said MDC secretary-general Tendai Biti.

"We have no doubt on the insistence of a recount because ballot boxes have been stuffed. Those ballot boxes have become pregnant and reproduced."

The MDC had long regarded the electoral commission, whose leadership was appointed by the government, as a partisan body despite its nominal independent status.

The party's leader Morgan Tsvangirai had already proclaimed himself the victor over Mugabe in the presidential poll, convinced that he won enough votes on March 29 to avoid the need for a second round run-off.

'We are being bought like sheep'

Meanwhile, the lack of results had not prevented Zanu-PF from declaring that there would be a run-off and had endorsed Mugabe as its candidate.

The 84-year-old president avoided any direct mention of the election outcome or whether he would stand in a run-off when he delivered an address Friday at celebrations to mark Zimbabwe's 28th anniversary of independence from Britain.

Instead Mugabe, who had ruled uninterrupted since independence, devoted much of his speech to attacks on the former colonial power whom he accused of bribing voters to mark their ballots for the MDC.

"Through money as a weapon, (the British) literally buy some of our people to turn against their government, and accept to be politically manipulated in abandoning their rights," said Mugabe. "We are being bought like sheep, like livestock."

Tsvangirai had warned that Zanu-PF was arming itself for a "war" against the people in the aftermath of the elections, pointing as evidence to a shipment of weapons from China destined for Zimbabwe.