Second Round of Voting in The 2008 Zimbabwean Presidential Election - Start of The Second Round

Start of The Second Round

The Herald reported on 21 May that the ZANU-PF run-off campaign would be launched by Mugabe on 25 May at the party's national headquarters in Harare. According to Justice Minister Patrick Chinamasa, 2,000 people would be invited to attend this main launch, although other launches would be held in wards across the country. Speaking at a police recruit graduation ceremony on 21 May, Mugabe again blamed the MDC for the violence, saying that it was "on an evil crusade of dividing our people along political lines".

Tsvangirai announced on 22 May that he planned to return to Zimbabwe on 24 May. Tsvangirai accordingly arrived from South Africa at the airport in Harare on 24 May. Speaking at a press conference later that day, Tsvangirai said that he did not think a national unity government was possible. He also expressed certainty in victory and described meeting with people who had been injured in the violence. Meanwhile, a truck carrying 60,000 copies of The Zimbabwean newspaper into Zimbabwe from South Africa was hijacked and burned, destroying the newspapers on board.

At the ZANU-PF official campaign launch on 25 May, Mugabe stressed Tsvangirai's Western backing, stating that the UK and US were joyful over the result of the first round and that some Zimbabweans wanted to "sell country for candy, like children"; he said that Zimbabweans should instead "unite as a family against outsiders". In response to US Ambassador McGee's earlier call for Tsvangirai to return, he threatened to expel McGee from Zimbabwe, and he derided the MDC's claim of an assassination plot against Tsvangirai.

On 25 May, Tsvangirai attended the funeral of MDC activist Tonderai Ndira, who was, according to the MDC, killed on 14 May for political reasons after putting up posters. The MDC alleged that, out of 20 people who put up posters, three had been killed and five were missing, while four had been arrested and the remainder had gone into hiding. Meanwhile, in the Sunday Mail, Chinamasa emphasised the critical nature of the second round for ZANU-PF, saying that "we are fighting with our backs to the wall". It was reported on the same day that the Pan African Parliament would send 30 observers, due to arrive on 13 June, with an advance team preceding them on 10 June.

In an article published in The Herald on 26 May, Mnangagwa expressed confidence that Mugabe would win, but said that Mugabe would "be the first one to go on national television to acknowledge the result to the people" if he lost. Angolan Foreign Minister João Bernardo de Miranda said on the same day that SADC would increase the number of observers it was sending for the second round "so as to assure greater transparency and trust in the process". The MDC had requested more observers; on 26 May, Chamisa said that the MDC wanted "full coverage of all the polling stations", and he said that it was particularly important that the observers have a strong presence in rural areas, as the MDC believed that problems were more likely to occur there. He also requested that SADC send a security monitoring team.

On 27 May, Tsvangirai and Chamisa said that more than 50 supporters had been killed in the violence up to that point. According to Chamisa, important members of the MDC were being abducted and their bodies were being found a few days later. He also said that the MDC was given no access to the state media and that it was "almost impossible" for the party to hold rallies, with permission for the MDC's previous two rallies being given only after it appealed to the High Court. However, he said that the difficulties the party was facing were merely "birth pangs" marking the transition to a new Zimbabwe, noting that the codename for the MDC's campaign was "Let's Finish It". On the same day, three people, including two South Africans, were arrested in Bulawayo after police found broadcasting and computer equipment belonging to Sky TV, a British television network, hidden in a factory. According to state radio, the equipment had been there since 23 March; it also said that the arrested individuals had attempted to bribe the police with 25,000 rand.

Anglican Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams and Anglican Archbishop of Cape Town Thabo Makgoba expressed their concern regarding violence against worshippers to UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon on 28 May. According to Williams and Makgoba, on 18 May security forces beat worshippers at churches in Harare and prevented them from attending church services.

Rather than endorse a candidate, Makoni called for the cancellation of the second round and the formation of a national unity government at a press conference on 29 May 2008, saying that this was urgently needed to prevent further violence. According to Makoni, there was evidence that some MDC supporters were engaging in retaliatory attacks against ZANU-PF. He said that a national unity government should exist on a transitional basis for two to five years, during which time healing and reconstruction would take place. He would not reveal whether he intended to ultimately support Tsvangirai, saying that if a second round could not be prevented, he and his Mavambo Kusile Dawn movement would "take a clear stand at the time".

Also on 29 May, Mugabe and his wife Grace visited the site of an alleged attack by MDC supporters at Shamva, in which a homestead was burned down. He said that they were deeply affected by seeing the destruction and warned the MDC that they should "stop immediately this barbaric campaign of burning and destroying people's homes". On this occasion, Grace told ZANU-PF supporters that, even if Tsvangirai won the second round, he would not be allowed to take office; she said that her husband would only leave office if he was succeeded by a member of ZANU-PF.

Meanwhile, it was reported by Michael Gerson, a columnist for The Washington Post, a US newspaper, that Mbeki had sent a letter to Bush in April complaining about the US attitude towards Zimbabwe and its involvement in the situation.

On 30 May, Tsvangirai told the members of the MDC parliamentary caucus that, for the sake of healing, unity, and "moving the country forward", the MDC should try to co-operate with "those peaceful members of Zanu-PF whose eyes are open to the disastrous state of our nation", but he rejected any co-operation with ZANU-PF's "violent hawks". In this speech, which Tsvangirai described as a state of the nation address, he said that Zimbabwe was in "a state of despair" and was "an unmitigated embarrassment to the African continent" due to its economic situation; he also said that those engaging in political violence would receive no amnesty from his government. Tsvangirai said that the MDC's legislative program would be "based on the return of fundamental freedoms to the people of Zimbabwe". A new "people-driven constitution" would follow within 18 months, according to Tsvangirai, and a "truth and justice commission" would be established; the army would "defend our borders, not attack our people", while the prisons would "hold only criminals, not innocent people". He pledged that the party would introduce a new strategy combining "demand and supply-side measures" to bring inflation under control. Tsvangirai also promised the revival of agriculture, saying that the issue would be "completely depoliticized" and that there would be measures to "compensate or reintegrate" farmers who lost their land as part of land reform.

Chinamasa said in South Africa on 30 May that Tsvangirai was anti-Zimbabwean and that a victory for Tsvangirai would be disastrous and "destabilising". However, he expressed confidence in a victory for Mugabe, attributing Mugabe's failure to win in the first round to "complacency and overconfidence" among ZANU-PF supporters who neglected to vote. He said that the party was encouraging those supporters to vote in the second round. Regarding the violence, Chinamasa accused the US and British governments of encouraging it. Chinamasa also claimed that US Ambassador McGee was taking victims of the violence to the hospital and paying for their treatment, but that he was doing so only for MDC supporters; furthermore, he said that McGee was "moving round with journalists and photographers in places where there had been no violence", intending to "foment the violence in order to take pictures".

State media reported on 31 May that two ZANU-PF supporters had been killed by assailants believed to be MDC supporters. The MDC had planned to hold rallies in Hwange and Victoria Falls on the same day, but it was unable to do so because the police did not allow its supporters into the venues, according to Chamisa. He said that the police were obstructing the MDC on instructions from ZANU-PF. Eric Matinenga, the newly elected MDC MP for Buhera West, was arrested on 31 May for allegedly paying MDC supporters to attack war veterans; the MDC said that his arrest occurred when he went to visit MDC supporters who had already been arrested.