News

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Zimbabwean state radio says police have banned all political rallies in the wake of the country's political crisis.

Nearly two weeks after the presidential election, results from the race have not been released.

Independent observer tallies suggest long-time President Robert Mugabe lost the vote, but that a runoff would be necessary.

The opposition says its candidate won the vote outright and that it will refuse to take part in a runoff.

State radio on Friday quoted police as saying that they had ordered all rallies cancelled.

Meanwhile, Mr. Mugabe will snub a regional summit at the weekend that was expected to pressure him to release delayed election results.

Zimbabwe state radio said the country would instead be represented by three ministers at the summit of the Southern African Development Community (SADC), called to discuss deepening concern over a post election deadlock.

Mr. Mugabe's decision was a direct snub to Zambian President Levy Mwanawasa, the SADC chairman, who called the meeting.

Mr. Mwanawasa last year described Zimbabwe as a "sinking Titanic" before getting back in line behind the body's softly softly approach to Mr. Mugabe.

Earlier, Deputy Information Minister Bright Matonga had said Harare was not consulted before the summit was called.

State radio said demands for Mr. Mugabe to release the results were misplaced because that was the prerogative of the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission.

Human rights organizations and the opposition Movement for Democratic Change say Mr. Mugabe has unleashed a campaign of systematic violence in response to his ZANU-PF party's first electoral defeat, when it lost control of parliament in the March 29 election.

The MDC says its leader Morgan Tsvangirai won a parallel presidential vote, whose results have not been announced, and Mr. Mugabe's 28-year rule is over.

It accuses Mr. Mugabe of delaying the result so that he can intimidate opposition supporters before a runoff vote against Tsvangirai.

Zimbabwean police said all political rallies had been banned because officers were too busy guarding ballot boxes or deployed to prevent post-election violence.