ASSASSINATION threats have derailed plans by Zimbabwe's opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai to return home yesterday to campaign for the presidential run-off vote.
Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) officials received information from a "credible source" about a planned attack on Tsvangirai, party spokesman George Sibotshiwe said.
"Because of that it has been decided that he will not return today," he said
.
Sibotshiwe added that there was no immediate clue who was behind the alleged plot to kill the MDC leader. There was no response from the government.
Tsvangirai, who has been out of the country for the past few weeks, had planned to kick off campaigning today for the June 27 presidential run-off. He won the first round against President Robert Mugabe, 84, but fell short of an outright majority. He says the run-off is illegal, but that the party will contest it.
The opposition and most observers say that the mounting violence and intimidation, mainly targeting opposition supporters, make it virtually impossible to hold a credible run-off election.
In recent weeks, opposition supporters have been beaten, killed and driven from their homes in a campaign of terror that observers say is meant to secure Mugabe's lock on power. The MDC says that more than 30 of its supporters have been killed.
Sibotshiwe said party officials would consult their own security experts and regional leaders for advice. He said Tsvangirai would return "at the earliest opportunity".
The former trade union leader has survived three assassination attempts, including one in 1997 by unidentified assailants who tried to throw him from a 10th floor office window.
Last year, he was hospitalised after a brutal assault by police at a prayer rally, and images seen around the world of his bruised and swollen face have come to symbolise the challenge dissenters encounter in his homeland.
At a ruling party central committee meeting on Friday, Mugabe said Zanu-PF must work hard for victory to "repair the damage" suffered in the March 29 polls.
Mugabe said his party failed to achieve a high turnout in voting, with less than half of registered voters casting their ballots in most areas.
"Most people stayed at home and that sleeping vote is what we must target and arouse. It is our vote. It is loyal to us... let us galvanise it for an emphatic victory," the state Herald newspaper quoted him as saying yesterday.
"We went to the election completely unprepared, unorganised... our structures went to sleep, we were in deep slumber in circumstances of all-out war. As leaders we all share the blame. We did not lead, we misled, we did not encourage, rather we discouraged, we did not unite, we divided... Hence the dismal result we were landed with," Mugabe said.
He said the opposition was backed by "a hostile axis of powerful foreign governments" and global corporate enterprises looking to promote their own commercial interests in Zimbabwe.
Meanwhile, foreign minister Simbarashe Mumbengegwi said no additional international observers would be allowed for the run-off, dismissing calls for extra monitors.
He also said he summoned US ambassador James McGee to the foreign ministry on Wednesday for a "dressing down" on alleged breaches of diplomatic protocol.
On Tuesday, McGee led a group of diplomats to two hospitals that had victims of political violence blamed on militants of Mugabe's party, and an alleged torture camp.
Mumbengegwi accused McGee's group of not following regulations requiring diplomats to inform the ministry of plans to travel outside a 20-mile radius of Harare, a charge denied by US officials.
