Zimbabwe's ZANU-PF calls for election recount -paper

(Adds report of ZANU-PF call for recount)

By Muchena Zigomo

HARARE, April 5 (Reuters) - Zimbabwe's ruling ZANU-PF party has called for a recount in last week's presidential election, saying there had been "errors and miscalculations" in the counting, the state-run Sunday Mail newspaper said.

The newspaper report came after opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai accused President Robert Mugabe of deploying loyal forces and liberation war veterans for a "war on the people" to reverse the results, which have not yet been released.

"Militants are being rehabilitated," Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) leader Morgan Tsvangirai told a press conference, adding that the central bank was printing money "for the finance of violence" ahead of a presidential runoff vote.

The MDC says it won the March 29 presidential election.

But the Sunday Mail said ZANU-PF had asked 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".

"Consequent to the anomalies, the party has also requested that the commission defer the announcement of the presidential election result," the paper said in its online edition.

The newspaper also quoted Justice Minister Patrick Chinamasa as saying ZANU-PF had rejected what Chinamasa described as an offer from Tsvangirai to form a unity government.

Official results do show the MDC won a parallel vote in which Mugabe's ZANU-PF lost control of parliament for the first time -- the biggest defeat of the veteran leader's 28-year rule.

ZANU-PF and independent projections show Tsvangirai being forced into a presidential runoff after failing to win an absolute majority.

"The circumstances have changed, ZANU-PF has threatened, has deployed militias, has deployed war veterans," Tsvangirai said, adding Mugabe was "preparing a war on the people".

"It is unfair ... for President Mugabe to even hint at a runoff. Violence will be the new weapon to reverse the people's will. We won this election without the need for a runoff," said Tsvangirai, who called Mugabe a lame duck president and demanded that he concede.

State-owned radio reported that a group of pro-Mugabe war veterans had vowed to occupy all white-owned farms in Masvingo Province amid reports white farmers were returning to land seized by the government.

The war veterans have in the past been used to intimidate government opponents. Beginning in 2000 they led a wave of violent occupations of white farms as part of a government policy to redistribute land to blacks.



DELAY

The electoral commission on Saturday announced the final results of the senate election, showing ZANU-PF had won 30 seats, the same as MDC and a breakaway opposition faction combined.

But control of the senate, which can block lower house legislation, will depend on who wins the presidential election. The head of state appoints 15 members and local chiefs, who are normally loyal to him, appoint the remaining 18.

The senate results had to precede the anxiously awaited presidential outcome. But despite growing impatience over the delay, the commission said it would only release the results "when they are ready".

Under electoral law a presidential runoff must be held three weeks after results are released. So the longer the results take, the more time ZANU-PF has to organise. Earlier the Zimbabwe High Court postponed until Sunday a legal bid by the opposition to force the release of the presidential results.

Armed police initially prevented MDC lawyers from entering the High Court before allowing them in.

Zimbabwe has the world's highest rate of inflation at more than 100,000 percent, chronic food and fuel shortages and 80 percent unemployment.

A quarter of the population has fled abroad.

The opposition and Western governments blame Mugabe for Zimbabwe's economic collapse. He blames Western sanctions.

The last thing people needed was uncertainty in an election they hoped would bring relief from daily hardships.

"Personally I'm very disappointed because they're not giving us the results. We have been hearing all kinds of stories about the police and soldiers being sent to some areas and it's worrying," said Chamunorwa Matanga, a black market foreign currency dealer.



MUGABE FIGHTS BACK

The veteran president had looked wounded earlier in the week after the parliamentary defeat. But a meeting of the party's politburo on Friday planned a fight-back and resolved he would contest a runoff against Tsvangirai.

Party officials alleged widespread MDC bribery of electoral officials and said they would legally challenge the results in 16 constituencies, enough to overturn the parliamentary result if successful.

Analysts believe Mugabe will use his control of state apparatus, including the security forces and pro-government militias, to intimidate MDC supporters before a runoff.

Former colonial ruler Britain and the United States, both of whom have applied sanctions on Mugabe and his top officials, have criticised the election delay and suggested it could be the precursor to a rigged result.

(Additional reporting by Stella Mapenzauswa, Cris Chinaka, Muchena Zigomo, MacDonald Dzirutwe; Writing by Barry Moody, editing by Dominic Evans) For full Reuters Africa coverage and to have your say on the top issues, visit: africa.reuters.com)