Zimbabwe announces poll run-off, MDC cries foul

Zimbabwe opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai beat President Robert Mugabe in the presidential election but faces a run-off vote after failing to win an outright majority, the electoral body said on Friday.

The opposition Movement for Democratic Change called the announcement of the long-delayed result "scandalous daylight robbery".

It says Tsvangirai won more than 50 percent at the March 29 election and Mugabe's 28-year rule is over.

Chief Elections Officer Lovemore Sekeramayi said Tsvangirai won 47.9 percent and Mugabe took 43.2 percent.

"Since no candidate has received the majority of the total votes cast ... a second election shall be held on a date to be announced by the commission," Sekeramayi said.

By law, a second round should be held within 21 days of the result. The result was released after a process by the candidates to check the result, but opposition spokesman Nelson Chamisa said the verification had not been done properly.

"This whole thing is a scandal, scandalous daylight robbery and everyone knows that," he told Reuters. "We won this election outright, and yet what we are being given here as the outcome are some fudged figures meant to save Mugabe and ZANU-PF."

He said the party executive would decide the next move. Initial MDC estimates had given Tsvangirai 50.3 percent of the vote although independent and ruling ZANU-PF party projections had suggested he was unlikely to win an outright majority. A month-long delay to results had raised fears of widespread bloodshed in a country suffering economic ruin that has been ruled by Mugabe since independence from Britain in 1980.

The opposition had accused the government of delaying results to rig the outcome.