Zimbabwe Sets Date for Runoff

Zimbabwe has called a much delayed runoff presidential election for June 27 amid escalating violence against Robert Mugabe's opponents that human rights groups say makes a fair vote almost impossible.

Mugabe told a party meeting yesterday that the first-round result had been "disastrous" after he lost to Morgan Tsvangirai but without his opponent winning an outright majority. The president added that he was not prepared to lose power to an opposition he said was backed by "a hostile axis of powerful foreign governments", according to Reuters.

Tsvangirai said he would participate in the runoff after initially claiming an outright win but added that "violence has to cease for an election to be conducted or that election will not be legitimate".

Since the election, Mugabe's ruling Zanu-PF party has unleashed a wave of attacks against Tsvangirai's supporters that appear to have the twin aims of deterring opposition activists from campaigning and driving opposition supporters from their homes so they cannot vote.

Tens of thousands of people are believed to have been displaced, with thousands more beaten or arrested and more than 30 killed, according to the opposition.

Amnesty International yesterday described the violence against the opposition Movement for Democratic Change as "reaching crisis levels".

The runoff was called after the election commission declared that Tsvangirai won nearly 48% of the vote in the first round to just over 43% for Mugabe. The opposition claims Tsvangirai won outright with 50.3%.

Tsvangirai told a conference in Belfast yesterday that he will soon return to Zimbabwe after weeks out of the country.