Zimbabwe presidential election results announced
Friday, 02 May 2008 19:59
Morgan Tsvangirai beat Robert Mugabe but failed to win 50 per cent of the vote
The official results of
Zimbabwe's presidential election have finally been announced today.
Zimbabwe's Electoral Commission confirmed that the opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai had won 47.9 per cent of the national vote.
Incumbent president Robert Mugabe secured 43.2 per cent, but both men failed to win the 50 per cent required for victory.
A second round of voting is therefore now required, officials declared.
Mr Tsvangirai's party the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) have refused to accept the results claiming that its leader won the election outright with 50.3 per cent of the vote.
The MDC claims the results have been fixed in Mr Mugabe's favour and the Reuters news agency quotes a party spokesman as describing the situation as "scandalous" and "day light robbery".
The Foreign Office claimed today that the results "lacked credibility".
Zimbabwe has been stuck in limbo since the elections on March 29th with the MDC declaring victory while Mr Mugabe appears unwilling to hand over power.