Zim braces for run-off election

12/05/2008 08:09 - (SA)

Harare - Zimbabwe braced on Sunday for the return home of the country's opposition leader, who has vowed to face veteran president Robert Mugabe in a run-off election despite the risk of further violence.

Morgan Tsvangirai, who beat Mugabe in a first round of voting in March, is expected in Harare in the next few days after leaving the country in early April amid spiralling post-election violence directed at his party.

Zimbabwean doctors, trade unions and teachers have reported beatings and intimidation by government-backed militias since the first ballot on March 29 and the authorities have rounded up a number of high-profile opponents.

Sunday brought news that 58 opposition activists in a farming town northeast of Harare had been arrested on charges of public violence, according to local police.

Security assurances

Tsvangirai, who is threatened by treason accusations in his homeland, will seek security assurances from the 14-member regional body, the Southern African Development Community (SADC), before flying back, his spokesperson said.

"We cannot anticipate what the regime is going to do, but we are going back to Zimbabwe," spokesperson George Sibotshiwe told AFP.

Before Saturday, Tsvangirai had refused to say whether he would take part in the run-off - even though failure to do so would have handed victory to Mugabe.

He warned that his decision to take on Mugabe, who has been in power since the country's independence from Britain in 1980, risked provoking "more violence, more gloom, more betrayal".

Conditions

He set a series of conditions for his participation in the poll, including the presence of international peacekeepers, election monitors, free media and an end to violence to ensure a fair vote.

Sibotshiwe said that the opposition had met with Angola's president on Saturday to urge him to send regional SADC peacekeepers for the as yet unscheduled second round.

President Jose Eduardo dos Santos, believed to be close to Mugabe, is the head of the security committee of the 14-member Southern African Development Community (SADC) which has the ability to deploy peacekeepers in the region.

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