HARARE, Zimbabwe — Zimbabwe’s opposition on Saturday held out the possibility its leader would face President Robert Mugabe in a presidential runoff but called on the nation’s neighbors to verify the vote count from the first round.
Thokozani Khupe, vice president of the Movement for Democratic Change, said the group still thought a runoff was unnecessary, maintaining opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai won the first round outright March 29.
The Zimbabwe Electoral Commission released results a day earlier giving Tsvangirai the lead but not the simple majority needed to avoid a runoff with Mugabe, the second-place finisher. The opposition rejected those results as fraudulent.
At a news conference Saturday, Khupe called on the Southern African Development Community to help verify the results.
“We still need to be convinced before we participate in a runoff,” she said.
Top opposition leaders were expected to meet this weekend to consider their next step. Khupe did not comment on the meeting.
No runoff date has been set. Deputy Information Minister Bright Matonga said the constitution requires a second round no sooner than 21 days from the announcement of the results and no later than a year.
The opposition has consistently rejected a runoff, but its stance has appeared to soften since the official results were released, and Mugabe’s party said he would take part in a second round.
On Friday, Tsvangirai’s deputy in the Movement for Democratic Change, Tendai Biti, acknowledged that skipping a second round could result in another term for Mugabe. Biti told reporters in Johannesburg in neighboring South Africa that the only way out of the impasse was a power-sharing government led by Tsvangirai, but with no role for Mugabe.
