Mugabe forgoes regional summit

Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe skipped a regional summit Saturday addressing the deepening crisis over the country’s contentious presidential election, giving southern African leaders little chance to step up the pressure on him.

The summit reflected Mugabe’s growing isolation, as well as cracks in the usually uniform solidarity with him exhibited by the Southern African Development Community.

After meeting with Mugabe in Zimbabwe, South African President Thabo Mbeki said, “There is no crisis.”

But at the summit, Zambian President Levy Mwanawasa urged his counterparts to “focus on helping Zimbabwe to find an answer that generally reflects the will of the Zimbabwean people.”

In his opening speech, Mwanawasa said he had called the summit because of the failure of Zimbabwean officials to publish the results of the March 29 presidential election.

The Zimbabwe Electoral Commission, meanwhile, said it would conduct a full recount of the presidential and parliamentary vote on April 19, the state-run Sunday Mail newspaper reported. Chairman George Chiweshe said candidates, party representatives and observers would be allowed to witness the process, the paper said. Mugabe’s party, which according to the official parliamentary election results stands to lose its majority, had demanded a recount.

Independent tallies indicate that Mugabe lost the presidential balloting, but opposition candidate Morgan Tsvangirai did not win enough votes to avoid a runoff. Tsvangirai says he won outright and has urged leaders in the region to pressure Mugabe to step down.

Tsvangirai was invited to address the summit, an unprecedented move that further alienated Mugabe. But it appeared unlikely that leaders would call for Mugabe’s resignation.