Zimbabwe's opposition Movement for Democratic Change has planned to stage a strike Tuesday to protest the failure of the Electoral Commission to release results from last month's presidential ballot that the party says it won.

The MDC called for a general strike after the High Court rejected a petition to force the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission to announce the result. Morgan Tsvangirai's MDC says it won the ballot outright with 50.3 percent, while President Robert Mugabe's backers say a run-off is needed because none of the four main contenders achieved the majority required.
The MDC is “agitating for violence” by calling the strike, the state-controlled Herald newspaper cited Police Assistant Commissioner Wayne Bvudzijena as saying yesterday. The party distributed flyers threatening to disrupt transport and businesses that opened, he was cited as saying.
Mugabe, 84, is seeking to extend his 28-year rule of the southern African nation. His Zimbabwe African National Union- Patriotic Front lost its parliamentary majority for the first time since it came to power in last month's general election.
The Electoral Commission says the outcome of the presidential vote, held on the same day, has been delayed by logistical problems.
Southern African leaders who met in Lusaka, Zambia, at the weekend called on the commission to quickly recount results for 23 parliamentary seats.
The recount, which follows a request by Zanu-PF, is an attempt to fix the election, Nelson Chamisa, a spokesman for the MDC, said yesterday in a telephone interview from Harare. The commission rejected the accusation.
The National Reaction Force has been activated, with more police officers deployed, to deal with any unrest during today's protest, Bvudzijena said, according to the Herald's website.
The delay in releasing results is to ``give time for an alternative for the will of the people to be found,'' U.K. Foreign Secretary David Miliband said in London at a news conference with his Turkish counterpart Ali Babacan.
``The people of Zimbabwe have voted, they have clearly shown that there is not a majority for President Mugabe or for his regime,'' he said, according to a Foreign Office transcript.
The petition for the results to be released was dismissed by High Court Judge Tendai Uchena, who ruled that the MDC should pay the costs of the proceedings, Alec Muchadehama, a lawyer for the party, said in a telephone interview from Harare.
Elections in 2000, 2002 and 2005, all won by Mugabe and his party, were marred by breaches of electoral law and violence, according to observers from the European Union and other governments.
Support for Mugabe has withered after a failed land redistribution program from white to black farmers spawned a decade of recession and the world's highest inflation rate of 164,900 percent.
(Source: Bloomberg)