Zimbabwe begins checks of presidential votes

By Nelson Banya

HARARE (Reuters) - Officials began verifying the results from Zimbabwe's March 29 presidential election on Thursday, bringing a step closer the release of the long delayed vote count, the electoral commission said.

Senior government sources say opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai has beaten President Robert Mugabe but not by the outright majority needed to avoid a run-off ballot with the veteran leader, who has held power for 28 years.

The month-long delay to the results has raised fears of bloodshed and Tsvangirai's Movement for Democratic Change has accused Mugabe of prolonging the wait to rig the outcome.

The checks are designed to ensure all candidates are happy with the electoral commission's figures. Representatives of Tsvangirai and Mugabe were on hand as the verification began at Harare's International Conference Centre.

"We are in the process of verifying the results ... the process is going well," Chris Mbanga, Tsvangirai's representative at the vote check, said after work was suspended for the day. It was scheduled to resume Friday morning.

Tsvangirai has spent weeks outside Zimbabwe in a bid to raise foreign pressure on Mugabe to concede the election in a country suffering economic collapse. He said in an interview broadcast on Thursday that he would return after verification of the results.

"Once that is done, then we know who has won the election and then I will make the necessary steps to go back," he said in an interview on French news channel France 24.

No result has been announced to the public yet, but senior government sources have told Reuters Tsvangirai won 47 percent of the vote against the president's 43 percent. That would mean that a run-off is necessary.