Zimbabwe extends timeframe for runoff

HARARE, Zimbabwe (AP) -- The presidential runoff between incumbent Robert Mugabe and opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai will be held by July 31 -- three months after the first-round results were announced, state media reported Thursday.

An official government notice issued late Wednesday extended the deadline for holding the runoff to 90 days -- beyond the legally required 21 days -- after the release of election results, according to The Herald newspaper, a government mouthpiece.

Tendai Biti, secretary-general for Tsvangirai's Movement for Democratic Change, called that decision "irresponsible."

"This country cannot afford 90 days" of more violence and instability and deteriorating economic conditions, he said Thursday.

The electoral commission notice said Justice Minister Patrick Chinamasa is empowered under election laws to extend the original 21-day period for a runoff to 90 days.

The original 21 days would end May 24. The opposition has called for a runoff on May 23.

Tsvangirai claims he won the presidential race outright, beating Mugabe and two other candidates. But official results released May 2, weeks after the March 29 poll, showed he did not win enough votes to avoid a second round against Mugabe.

The opposition has accused Mugabe's party of using delays to mount a campaign of violence and intimidation against opposition supporters.

Biti, speaking to reporters in Johannesburg, South Africa, said violence was intensifying and now affecting "some of the key pillars of our structure."

Biti called on the Southern African Development Community to hold an emergency summit to address the opposition's call for a runoff by May 23 and for the regional organization to guarantee security, fairness and freedom of the vote.

He said the opposition remained determined to participate in the runoff. He also said Tsvangirai, who has been out of the country since shortly after the election, would soon be returning to Zimbabwe.

South African government spokesman Themba Maseko said South Africa, which is mediating on behalf of SADC between the Mugabe's government and Tsvangirai's party, would have preferred the runoff to have been held within the originally stipulated period.

"But if the parties agree that it is in the interests of long-term stability to have a runoff at a different date ... we think that the decision of the Zimbabweans must be respected," he said at a media briefing in Cape Town. Watch Tsvangirai prepare to take on Mugabe in the runoff. »

Meanwhile, Zimbabwe's central bank unveiled a new half-billion Zimbabwean dollar bank note Thursday.

The new bill and three others for 5 billion, 25 billion and 50 billion Zimbabwe dollars, called "special agro" checks intended for purchases and sales involved in farm production, were going into circulation next Tuesday, the central bank said.

Earlier this month, the bank floated the local currency exchange rate through commercial banks, where a single U.S. dollar sold Wednesday for around 240 million Zimbabwe dollars, slightly higher than the dominant black market rate for hard currency.

That change saw prices of goods soar, with unofficial estimates putting annual inflation at more than 700,000 percent.

Official inflation was given in February at 165,000 percent, and no further official figures have been released.

"Prices are now doubling every week instead of every month and it is hard to see how we can survive to the end of June or how an election will be feasible at all if things continue to deteriorate at this pace," said Harare economist John Robertson.

The central bank said the "agro" checks, similar in appearance to the nation's existing range of bills, will be accepted by retailers and banks up to the end of the year.

The previous highest denomination bill was for 250 million Zimbabwe dollars -- worth $1 -- enough to buy about two loaves of bread.

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