President Robert Mugabe's ruling party is demanding a recount of last month's presidential election, even though official results still have not been released, according to reports in Zimbabwe's state media on Sunday.

The demand outraged the opposition party Movement for Democratic Change (MDC), which says its leader, Morgan Tsvangirai, won the vote outright.

Morgan Tsvangirai, in an exclusive CBC interview on Sunday, says a recount in Zimbabwe's election is 'absurd' because official results haven't been released.
(CBC)

In an exclusive interview at an undisclosed location, Tsvangirai told the CBC's Adrienne Arsenault and Laura Lynch the idea that there should be a recount when official results have not yet been published is "absurd."

He said the election was run under Mugabe's rules, and for his ZANU-PF party to suddenly be calling the results of the March 29 presidential ballot foul is a "ridiculous" charge.

"What we know is that within 48 hours, you can ask for a recount, at the voting station," he said. "Now, in this case, the results have already been collected at all voting stations. So what kind of a recount are they talking about? It would not only be illegal, but it would be totally impractical to do so."

MDC also said it did not want a run-off and will instead continue with legal attempts to force publication of the results.

"We are not going to accept the so-called run-off. It is going to be a 'run-over' of Zimbabwe. People are going to be killed," opposition spokesman Nelson Chamisa said. "We are not so naive a leadership to lead our people to slaughter."

Tsvangirai said he has "no doubt" the results will be released, adding he believes ZANU-PF already knows the outcome.

"That is why they are all running around helter-skelter. They know that we have won this election outright, but they cannot accept that situation, because that is an immediately acceptance of defeat."

Unofficial tallies by independent monitors show Tsvangirai won more votes than Mugabe, but fewer than the 50 per cent plus one vote required to avoid a run-off.

A Zimbabwe high court will decide Monday whether it has the authority to order the release of the election results.

Offices ransacked

Results released by the electoral commission last Wednesday showed ZANU-PF lost control of parliament, with 109 seats going to MDC and 97 to Mugabe's party.

The constitution provides for a run-off in a presidential vote within three weeks of the elections if no candidate wins more than 50 per cent plus one vote.

MDC has alleged the government might use intimidation and violence in a bid to extend Mugabe's 28-year rule. 

Lawyer Beatrice Mtetwa walks outside a Harare court on Sunday after lodging an application for the release of journalists arrested for working without accreditation.
(Mujahid Safodien/Star/Associated Press)

For his interview on Sunday, Tsvangirai arranged to meet with CBC journalists at a safe house and told them "it's always important for him to take security very seriously.

"There are rogue elements in this society," he said, adding he's not running away from the "lawful agents of the state."

Last year, Tsvangirai was severely assaulted in detention and was taken to hospital for treatment following his arrest over a banned prayer rally, his lawyer said. 

Last Thursday, intruders ransacked MDC offices and detained several foreign journalists, including the CBC's Arsenault, who was later released.

On Sunday, Beatrice Mtetwa, a lawyer for two western journalists who were arrested, was in a Harare court to file an application for their release.

Barry Bearak of the New York Times and a British reporter are charged with covering the election without accreditation.

Mugabe, 84, came to power in 1980 after a seven-year war for black rule.

In the last decade, Zimbabwe's once-thriving economy has collapsed under hyper-inflation and mismanagement of land seized from thousands of white farmers for redistribution to landless blacks, the majority of whom lacked the skills and means to farm.

With files from the Associated Press