Official Results Finally Out in Zimbabwe

Zimbabwe’s official election results are finally out, Reuters reports, and as expected, they call for a runoff between opposition candidate Morgan Tsvangirai and President Robert Mugabe. Tsvangirai won 47.9% of the vote, the election commission found, beating Mugabe’s 43.2% but not hitting the 50% necessary to avoid a runoff. “This whole thing is a scandal, scandalous daylight robbery and everyone knows that,” an opposition spokesman said.

Tsvangirai's party claims that he won 50.3% of the vote and that the government delayed the results—voting took place a month ago—so it could tamper with the ballot boxes. Tsvangirai has threatened to boycott any runoff unless UN election observers preside over it.; the US and other countries have expressed worry that state-orchestrated intimidation and violence directed at opposition voters would mar a runoff. (More Zimbabwe stories.)