HARARE: Zimbabwe's Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) said on Friday it could take to the streets to challenge President Robert Mugabe's victory in an election it rejects as a farce and which faces scepticism from the West.
No results of the presidential vote on July 31 have been announced. But Mugabe's ZANU-PF has already claimed a resounding win and interim tallies of the parliamentary count suggest a massive victory for the 89-year-old, Africa's oldest president, who has ruled since independence from Britain in 1980.
While the African Union's monitoring mission chief has called Wednesday's peaceful polls generally "free and fair" Western observers were kept out by Harare - domestic monitors have described them as "seriously compromised" by registration flaws that may have disenfranchised up to a million people.
Observers from the Southern African Development Community, a regional grouping, described the elections as "free and peaceful" and called on MDC leader Morgan Tsvangirai to accept the result.
Tsvangirai, who faces political annihilation in his third attempt to oust Mugabe at the ballot box, has already denounced the election as a "huge farce" marked by polling day irregularities and intimidation by ZANU-PF.
Western rejection of the regional African verdict on the Zimbabwean election could stir tensions with the continent, while acceptance of Mugabe's victory will be slammed in countries where he is derided as a ruthless despot responsible for rights abuses and trashing the economy.
The mood on the streets of the capital Harare was subdued on Friday as the MDC's top leadership met at its headquarters to chart their next move, with everything from a legal challenge to street protests on the table.
"Demonstrations and mass action are options," party spokesman Douglas Mwonzora said.
"DAYLIGHT ROBBERY"
Some disappointed voters expressed disbelief at the election outcome. "This is daylight robbery, but I think the MDC should have realized that, without violence, ZANU-PF would still do something to cheat," said McDonald Sibanda, a 34-year old insurance salesman.
"I'm disgusted by all this."
An MDC protest campaign against the results could elicit a fierce response from security forces and pro-Mugabe militias, who were accused of killing 200 MDC supporters after Mugabe lost the first round of the last election in 2008.
"We didn't expect this to happen," one senior MDC official who lost his seat told Reuters. "We're gutted."
Zimbabwe's former colonial ruler Britain, a sharp critic of Mugabe in the past, said it was concerned that Zimbabwe had not enacted important electoral reforms before the vote and by reports that large numbers of voters had been turned away.
The US government, which maintains sanctions in place against Mugabe, said "a peaceful and orderly election day does not by itself guarantee a free and fair outcome".
"Now the critical test is whether voting tabulation is conducted in a credible and transparent manner, and whether the outcome truly reflects the will of the people of Zimbabwe," US State Department spokeswoman Marie Harf said in Washington.
Europe and the United States now face the awkward decision of what to do with the sanctions they have in place against Mugabe and his inner circle.
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