HARARE (AFP) — Robert Mugabe's party refused to release its grip on power Sunday, demanding a recount in Zimbabwe's presidential election and snubbing an offer to join the opposition in a national unity government.
As Zimbabweans began a second week of waiting for results of the poll, state media said Mugabe's ZANU-PF had dismissed a unity government as unworkable and was now demanding a complete recount after detecting irregularities.
Meanwhile the opposition Movement for Democratic Change, whose leader Morgan Tsvangirai has claimed a clear victory over Mugabe in the March 29 vote, sought to break the deadlock with a legal bid to force officials to declare a winner.
Their case was due to be heard at midday (1000 GMT) at the high court, but there was little expectation it would bring an end to the crisis facing the southern African nation.
After Tsvangirai upped the stakes on Saturday by declaring he had won enough votes to avoid a second round run-off against Mugabe, ZANU-PF hit back by demanding the electoral commission stage a complete recount of the vote.
The state-run Sunday Mail said ZANU-PF had written to the electoral commission highlighting alleged anomalies in a number of constituencies.
"ZANU-PF has requested the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission (ZEC) to recount and audit all its electoral material relating to last week's presidential election following revelations of errors and miscalculations in the compilation of the poll result," said the government mouthpiece.
"Consequent to the anomalies, the party has also requested that the commission defer the announcement of the presidential election result."
However the demand was swiftly dismissed as "illegal" by the MDC, which claimed ZANU-PF was only demanding a recount because it had been stuffing ballot boxes with false voting slips since election day.
"A recount is only asked for 48 hours after the counting and as far as we are concerned counting was done on Sunday and they should have asked for a recount on Tuesday," said chief MDC spokesman Nelson Chamisa.
"We have evidence that certain ... individuals at the PGHQ (police headquarters) and some buildings in town have been busy for the past five days trying to expertly open the ballot boxes and refilling them and that is why they are asking for a recount.
"They know a recount will produce a fictitious and fallacious result in favour of Mugabe."
Amid the war of words, one of Mugabe's closest lieutenants revealed the MDC had made an approach about forming a national unity government but said it had been swiftly rejected.
"We can never collaborate with the MDC given that our political objectives and aspirations are as different as day is from night," Patrick Chinamasa, who served as justice minister in the outgoing government, told the Sunday Mail.
Mugabe, in power since independence from Britain 28 years ago, suffered the heaviest blow of his rule in last weekend's joint presidential and parliamentary elections.
ZANU-PF lost control of the 210-seat house of assembly to the MDC while the party has acknowledged Mugabe failed to win over 50 percent of votes in the presidential contest which are needed to avoid a run-off.
At a meeting of its politburo, the party endorsed Mugabe to stand in a run-off which should take place on April 19.
However the lengthy delay over the release of results and the latest call for a recount is likely to upset the timeframe.
As well as demanding the presidential election recount, ZANU-PF is also challenging results from 16 parliamentary constituencies in a move which could potentially restore its majority.
Tsvangirai warned on Saturday that ZANU-PF was "preparing a war against the people of Zimbabwe" in order to stay in power.
Hours after Tsvangirai spoke, state television reported that the president's supporters had seized one of the country's few remaining white-owned farms.
Mugabe, who has led the country since independence in 1980, has presided over its demise from regional model to economic basket case.
Inflation is officially running at around 100,000 percent but most experts believe the real figure is several times higher. Unemployment stands at around 80 percent while even basics such as bread and cooking oil are hard to come by.
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