South African President Thabo Mbeki said Saturday there was no post-election crisis in Zimbabwe, ahead of an emergency summit of regional leaders on the situation in the country.
"There is no crisis in Zimbabwe," Mbeki said after talks with President Robert Mugabe during a brief stopover in Harare on his way to join southern African leaders meeting in Zambia.
His comments will disappoint those, including Zimbabwe's opposition, who accuse Mugabe of delaying the result on purpose and trying to force a run-off so he can intimidate his way to victory.
But Mbeki ignoring pleas for outside pressure to be levied upon the veteran Zimbabwean leader to drag his country out of its political quagmire and demanded simply that things be allowed to run their course.
"The body authorised to release the results is the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission, let's wait for them to announce the results," he told journalists.
Alongside him Mugabe made no mention of the election and denied he was snubbing the gathering of the 14-nation Southern African Development Community (SADC) in the Zambian capital.
"We are very good friends and very good brothers. Sometimes you attend, sometimes you have other things holding you back," Mugabe said.
The head of the Zimbabwean government's delegation in Lusaka dismissed the summit as unnecessary and angrily denounced the invitation granted to Zimbabwe's opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai.
"There is no need to regionalise the Zimbabwean crisis," Justice Minister Patrick Chinamasa told AFP. "Inviting an opposition leader to a heads of state meeting is unheard of. We will not accept Tsvangirai to be part of this meeting."
Zambian Foreign Minister Kabinga Bande played down Tsvangirai's presence, saying he had not been "invited to attend the summit per se" and was only there in case SADC wanted to hear his side of the story.
With still no official result from a presidential election held two weeks ago, tensions are visibly mounting in Zimbabwe whose economic meltdown under Mugabe has scorched the whole region.
While Tsvangirai has claimed outright victory, Chinamasa insisted neither he nor Mugabe had won a clear victory and that the presidential battle must go to a second round.
"As far as we are concerned we have done our own collation of the vote and there's no clear winner. We are now gearing up for a run-off."
The opposition Movement for Democratic Change accuses Mugabe of launching a campaign of intimidation and has ruled out Tsvangirai's participation in a second ballot.
"The military has basically taken over," said MDC number two Tendai Biti, who arrived in the Zambian capital earlier alongside Tsvangirai.
"There is a constitutional coup d'etat that has taken place there and that's why this meeting is very critical," Biti told journalists, calling on SADC to "speak out clearly and decisively against his dictatorship and the status quo."
Southern African leaders have been heavily criticised over their traditional reluctance to speak out against Mugabe, who with 28 years at the helm is the longest-serving of them all.
Nevertheless many in SADC are fed up with the economic mess on their doorstep with inflation in Zimbabwe now well into six figures, unemployment at over 80 percent and average life expentancy down to 36 years of age.
Some three million Zimbabweans have left their homeland to find work or food, mostly to its giant neighbour South Africa.
US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, who has branded the situation in Zimbabwe as a disgrace to southern Africa, is among those who are hoping SADC reads the riot act to Mugabe.
"We are communicating with the leaders who have organized that summit. And we would call upon them to take a firm stand, and take a firm stand for democracy in Zimbabwe," State Department spokesman Sean McCormack said.
In Zimbabwe, tensions were obviously rising ahead of the summit with riot police on street corners of the capital and reports of threats and intimidation in rural areas, traditionally Mugabe's support base.
Prime Minister Gordon Brown of former colonial power Britain said Friday he was "appalled" by signs Mugabe was using violence in the wake of the elections and warned that the patience of the international community "is wearing thin."
The opposition has called for a general strike on Tuesday, the day after a court is due to rule on an MDC bid to force the electoral commission to publish the presidential election result.
