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400,000 defy Mugabe


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Almost 400,000 Zimbabweans defied the threat of violent retribution by Robert Mugabe's thugs to vote against him or spoil their ballot papers, according to official results released on Sunday. Announcing the inevitable outcome of Friday's second-round presidential poll, election officials claimed that Mr Mugabe had almost exactly doubled his tally from the first round in March, in which he was defeated by Morgan Tsvangirai, leader of the opposition Movement for Democratic Change.

According to the Zimbabwe Election Commission's figures the turnout of 42 per cent was almost exactly the same as the first round – although many polling stations were virtually deserted throughout election day.

But the body unwittingly handed a propaganda coup to the opposition, whose activists and supporters have faced intense intimidation and political violence, including murder and rape, in the run up to the second round. Officials said that Mr Tsvangirai had received 233,000 votes, with another 131,481 spoiled papers, even though the opposition leader pulled out of the election in the face of widespread and sustained violence.
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