Zimbabwe's main opposition said today that 40 out of 53 African leaders support its claim of victory in the country's election in March and do not recognise Robert Mugabe's presidency following last week's runoff.
The African Union begins a summit in the Egyptian town of Sharm el-Sheikh today, where the main discussion point will be Zimbabwe's election on Friday, in which Mr Mugabe was the sole candidate.
The US and UK have led calls for the continent's leaders to reject Mr Mugabe's inauguration yesterday to a sixth term in office as illegitimate.
"Generally there is an agreement among African leaders that what Mugabe did on June 27 is unacceptable," Thokozani Khupe, the vice president of the opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC), said in an interview today.
"The African leaders recognise the election that was held on March 29th."
The MDC beat the ruling ZANU-PF in municipal, district council and parliamentary elections in March, the first time Mr Mugabe's party hasn't held a majority in those branches of government since independence in 1980.
The MDC's leader, Morgan Tsvangirai, won more votes than Mr Mugabe in the presidential election, without gaining the 50 per cent to avoid a rerun. Mr Tsvangirai withdrew from the runoff, citing a state-sponsored campaign of violence in which at least 86 of his supporters died and 200,000 were forced to flee their homes.
The 14-nation Southern African Development Community (SADC) said today last week's election "didn't represent the will of the people" and was characterised by "politically motivated violence, intimidation and displacement."
Bloomberg