The much anticipated March 29 presidential election results are set to be announced by Saturday this week, The Zimbabwe Gazette has learnt.

George Chiweshe Zimbabwe Electoral Comission Chairman At A Press Conference.

According to the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission (ZEC), the recounting process is now complete.

“We are now going into the verification process which is likely to last three days, of which the 2008 presidential election results will be announced afterwards.

“Each political party has collected its figures and we are going to invite all the four presidential candidates, their agents or representatives,” said ZEC.

SADC indicated failure to do so, it would not take any more excuses from ZEC. However, SADC did not specify which action it would take if ZEC fails to deliver.

The ZEC says the presidential poll results announcement has been delayed by the recounting process.

“We urge Zimbabweans to remain calm and assure them that they are going to know the results as soon as possible,” added ZEC.

For the first time in history, ZANU PF lost the majority of votes in Parliament, and also disputed the results. ZEC called for a poll recount after the ruling ZANU PF party claimed the main opposition party, the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) rigged the election. ZANU PF disputed the results in 23 constituencies.

Information gathered reveal so far, no changes took place, and the respective candidates who had previously won- retained their seats in their respective constituencies.

Sources say the unchanged results are a result of the stern procedures in the election process in which ZANU PF sought to rig the election, but failed.

“This means in the results to be announced, the MDC’s Morgan Tsvangirai indeed beat president Robert Mugabe.”

“The only issue is of the margin now, of which if Tsvangirai got less than 50 percent, there will be a run-off,” he said.

South Africa’s ANC president Jacob Zuma is reported to have been also running around to find support in pressurizing Mugabe to release the election results.

African Union (AU) chairperson and Tanzanian president Jikaya Kikwete also hinted he would take up the Zimbabwean issue at the AU summit.

Meanwhile the state says police will remain alert as there has been numerous incidents of violence.

“Police will deal with perpetrators of violence who tend to hide with political parties to excuse their indulging in criminal activities.”

Surprisingly, despite the collaboration from almost all African and western countries, South African leader Thabo Mbeki has dismissed that there is a crisis in the country and continues to support Mugabe’s stance.

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