Timeline: Zimbabwe's presidential election run-off

Sun Jun 29, 2008 11:55am EDT
 
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(Reuters) - Here is a chronology of the main developments since Zimbabwe's presidential, parliamentary and local elections took place on March 29.

March 30 - Opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) claims victory in presidential and parliamentary elections based on early results.

April 2 - Parliamentary election results show President Robert Mugabe's ZANU-PF has lost its majority for the first time since independence in 1980.

-- MDC says its leader, Morgan Tsvangirai, also won presidential election and calls on Mugabe to concede. State-run paper the Herald says no candidate won an outright majority.

May 2 - Electoral body says Tsvangirai won most votes in the presidential election, but not enough to avoid a run-off against Mugabe. Opposition rejects the result.

May 16 - Run-off is set for June 27.

May 24 - Tsvangirai returns to Zimbabwe to contest the run-off after several weeks abroad, even though he says first round results were rigged to deny him outright victory.

June 4 - Police detain Tsvangirai for more than eight hours while he was campaigning for the run-off. He is eventually held five times.

June 5 - Police detain U.S. and British diplomats after halting their convoy north of Harare. Their cars were damaged and the diplomats were detained for several hours.

June 12 - Zimbabwe police arrest MDC Secretary-General Tendai Biti. Police say he will be charged with treason and could face the death penalty. He is released on bail on June 26.

June 22 - Tsvangirai says he is pulling out of the run-off because attacks by Mugabe's supporters have killed 90 of his followers, making a fair election impossible.

June 23 - U.N. Security Council unanimously declares a free and fair presidential election run-off impossible.

June 25 - Zimbabwe's neighbors in the Southern African Development Community call for the vote to be postponed.

June 27 - Zimbabwe goes ahead with the run-off vote.

June 29 - Mugabe is sworn in for a new five-year term after being declared landslide winner of the widely condemned run-off election in which he was the only candidate.

-- The electoral commission says Mugabe wins 85.51 percent of the vote compared to 43.2 percent in elections in March.

-- Pan-African parliament observers say the vote was so flawed it should be rerun.

 

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