They show opposition candidate Morgan Tsvangirai taking 47.9% of the vote to President Robert Mugabe's 43.2%, short of the 50% plus one margin needed to avoid a runoff election.
At this point though, it’s hard to believe that these results are accurate. Zimbabwe held their elections on March 29 - more than five weeks ago, and in that time they were able to count and then recount the vote cast for the country's parliament, yet held off on releasing the presidential vote. Tsvangirai's Movement for Democratic Change party has been claiming for weeks that he won the election outright and that Mugabe's ZANU-PF party has been trying to steal the election. Human Rights Watch has accused the government in the weeks following the election of a campaign of violence and intimidation against the opposition, which has left over 100 people dead across the country.
Whether a fair and honest runoff is even possible at this point, given the attacks on the opposition, is something most outside observers doubt. "It's pretty hard to see how there could be a meaningful runoff in Zimbabwe when the government has done everything it can to both delay and obscure the results," said US State Department spokesman Tom Casey on Friday.
Tsvangirai and the opposition though are in a bind - either run in what's likely to be a rigged election, or not bother and let Mugabe retain power unopposed. The MDC has said they will make their decision on Saturday.
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