Tsvangirai May Drop Out

Morgan Tsvangirai is seriously considering dropping out of Zimbabwe’s presidential run-off vote, an official in his party tells the BBC, in view of the mounting campaign of violence against his supporters and the diminishing prospects for fair polling. “There is a huge avalanche of calls and pressure from supporters across the country… not to accept to be participants in this charade,” said an MDC spokesman.

Senior MDC leaders are meeting in Harare to discuss the possible withdrawal. Dropping out would hand a victory to Robert Mugabe, but it would also pressure the international community to act more forcefully to stop the violence. To that end, the EU threatened new sanctions against Mugabe today at its summit in Brussels, though it didn’t specify what those measures might entail. (More Morgan Tsvangirai stories.)