HARARE, Zimbabwe — The main opposition leader claimed outright victory in Zimbabwe’s presidential election yesterday as pressure mounted on President Robert Mugabe to step down to avoid the humiliation of a runoff vote.
Both ruling party and opposition officials denied persistent reports of negotiations for a managed exit for Mr. Mugabe, who has led the country from liberation to ruin since 1980.
Addressing his first press conference since Saturday’s election, opposition candidate Morgan Tsvangirai said he was waiting for an official announcement of the results from the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission before he would enter any talks with Mr. Mugabe.
Mr. Tsvangirai said he had won more than the 50 percent simple majority needed for victory. A group of civil-society monitors said he had just more than 49 percent of the votes.
Mr. Mugabe has made no statement about the election.
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A businessman close to the state electoral commission and a lawyer close to the opposition said earlier the two men’s aides were negotiating a graceful exit for Mr. Mugabe, the country’s leader of 28 years, the Associated Press reported. Several diplomats said they had heard similar reports of secret negotiations but could not confirm talks were under way.
“There are no discussions,” Mr. Tsvangirai said. “Let’s wait for [the election commission] to complete its work, then we can discuss the circumstances that will affect the people.”
Video: Zimbabwe’s opposition leader claims victory
Deputy Information Minister Bright Matonga in the Mugabe government also denied it, telling the British Broadcasting Corp.: “There are no negotiations whatsoever, because we are waiting for the presidential results, so why do we need to hold any secret talks?”
Tensions rose as people stayed away from work to await results. Paramilitary police have stepped up patrols in the capital Harare and Bulawayo, the second-largest city, and several roadblocks have been set up at strategic entrances to the capital. The opposition has most of its support in urban centers.
The businessman said Mr. Mugabe has been told he is far behind Mr. Tsvangirai in preliminary results and that he might have to face a runoff. He said the prospect was too humiliating for the 84-year-old Mr. Mugabe, and that was why the president was considering ceding power in this Montana-sized country in southern Africa.
The Zimbabwe Election Support Network, a coalition of 38 Zimbabwe civil society organizations, said its random representative sample of polling stations showed Mr. Tsvangirai won just over 49 percent of the vote and Mr. Mugabe 42 percent. Simba Makoni, a former Mugabe loyalist, trailed with about 8 percent.
A senior Western diplomat in Harare told Reuters news agency the international community was discussing ideas to try to persuade Mr. Mugabe to step down, “but I don’t think there is anything firm on the table.”
In Washington, Gordon Johndroe, spokesman for the National Security Council, said “it’s clear the people of Zimbabwe have voted for change. It’s time for the Zimbabwean Electoral Commission to confirm the results we have all seen from the local polling stations and respected NGOs.”
At his press conference, Mr. Tsvangirai spoke as if he already had been declared president:
“For years we have trod a journey of hunger, pain, torture and brutality,” he said. “Today we face a new challenge of governing and rehabilitating our beloved country, the challenge of giving birth to a new Zimbabwe founded on restoration not retribution, on love not war.”
As Zimbabweans wait for the returns, “our country is on a precipice, on a cliff edge,” he said.
The situation remained fragile and could deteriorate without a Mugabe resignation.
Martin Rupiya, a military analyst at South Africa’s Institute for Strategic Studies and a former lieutenant colonel in the Zimbabwean army, said he had heard of the military’s involvement in negotiations for Mr. Mugabe to step down.
The election result “has compelled the military, the hawkish wing and the other moderate, to begin to reconsider accommodating the opposition,” he told the Associated Press. “Because of the nature of the wins, they have been forced to reassess.”
The electoral commission has released results for 182 of the 210 parliamentary seats — giving Mr. Tsvangirai’s Movement for Democratic Change 92 seats, including five for a breakaway faction, to 90 for Mr. Mugabe’s ruling party, Zimbabwe African National Union-Patriotic Front. At least six Cabinet ministers have lost their seats, according to the official results.
The commission has offered no results in the presidential race.
Zimbabweans still fear Mr. Mugabe may declare himself winner, as he has in previous elections that observers said were marked by rigging, violence and intimidation.
At independence, Mr. Mugabe was hailed for his policies of racial reconciliation and development that brought education and health to millions who had been denied those services under colonial rule. Zimbabwe’s economy thrived on exports of food, minerals and tobacco.
The unraveling began when Mr. Mugabe ordered the often-violent seizures of white-owned commercial farms, ostensibly to return them to the landless black majority. Instead, Mr. Mugabe replaced a white elite with a black one, giving the farms to relatives, friends and cronies who allowed cultivated fields to be taken over by weeds.
Today, Zimbabweans are suffering the world’s highest inflation of more than 100,000 percent, food and fuel shortages, and an HIV/AIDS epidemic that has contributed to a steep drop in life expectancy.
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