Zimbabwe tally shows election runoff needed

updated 2:53 p.m. ET May 1, 2008

HARARE, Zimbabwe - A runoff will be necessary to decide Zimbabwe's presidential election, a Cabinet minister said Thursday, citing the government's own election results.

Deputy Information Minister Bright Matonga's comments came a day after Zimbabwe's opposition rejected a runoff. That's despite a media report that the official tally — still not released more than a month after the vote — showed its candidate beat Mugabe, but not by enough to avoid a second round.

Matonga said Mugabe's party will take part in a runoff.

"As far as I'm concerned, there is going to be a runoff," Matonga told The Associated Press. "We have got our own results."

On Wednesday, CNN quoted an unidentified senior official with Zimbabwe's ruling ZANU-PF party as saying results from the March 29 election gave opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai 47 percent of the votes while Mugabe trailed with 43 percent.

Matonga would not say whether the CNN report was correct or give details about the figures he said the government has. But he said no one won the 50 percent plus one vote needed to avoid a runoff.

Opposition leader says he won
Independent observers have been saying that Tsvangirai won the most votes, but not enough to avoid a runoff. Tsvangirai insists he won outright.

Individual polling stations have posted results, allowing parties and others to compile their own tallies while the nation awaits official results from the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission. Tsvangirai and rights groups have accused Mugabe of withholding the results to buy time to steal a runoff through intimidation or fraud.

Electoral commission officials said late Wednesday that no official results had been released and that party officials would not see them until the verification process, which began Thursday afternoon.

Mugabe and Tsvangirai sent representatives and independent candidate Simba Makoni himself attended. Journalists were allowed inside for only a few minutes as the process began, and were given no indication when it would be completed.

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