Candidate Is Threatening To Boycott New Zimbabwe Poll
This article is from the archive of The New York Sun before the launch of its new website in 2022. The Sun has neither altered nor updated such articles but will seek to correct any errors, mis-categorizations or other problems introduced during transfer.
JOHANNESBURG — Zimbabwe’s opposition leader, Morgan Tsvangirai, came under growing pressure yesterday to take part in a second round of the country’s presidential election.
His party, the Movement for Democratic Change, insists that Mr. Tsvangirai won the vote in March outright and that no run-off is necessary. It is threatening to boycott the second round called by the Zimbabwe Election Commission, which claims that Mr. Tsvangirai beat Robert Mugabe but fell short of an absolute majority.
A boycott would automatically hand victory, and a sixth term in office, to Mr. Mugabe, 84.
A senior MDC figure and a newly-elected senator for Bulawayo, David Coltart, said, “I think we all have no choice but to participate although the brutality is just shocking.”
A political commentator, John Mattison, said, “He’s got to participate because otherwise Mugabe just becomes president. Having come this far, I don’t see that he has any other choice.”
As leaders of the MDC met to decide on their next move, an insider said it was considering what conditions to demand for its participation.
“International supervision should be mandatory — the whole African Union should be allowed in,” he said. “Over and above that there has to be an end to politically motivated violence.”
Mr. Mugabe’s Zanu-PF party may not agree to, or abide by, such terms without substantial pressure from Zimbabwe’s neighbors.
