Robert Mugabe unleashed his most feared thugs on the streets of the Zimbabwean capital yesterday in a very public show of force as his party’s leadership united in a last-ditch bid for him to stay in power.

At its first meeting since the party’s shock defeat at polls held last weekend, the Zanu (PF) politburo endorsed Mr Mugabe’s bid for a second-round run-off against his opposition challenger, Morgan Tsvangirai. The continued absence of official results in the presidential race, which Mr Tsvangirai says he has won outright, raised fears that the figures were being held back and manipulated to ensure that a second round would take place.

After a week of high drama, from reports of his imminent concession to last night’s sudden nocturnal crackdown on foreign journalists and raids on opposition offices, fears are growing that Mr Mugabe is planning a violent, protracted fight to the end.

Yesterday more than 400 of his so-called war veterans, the shock troops that led the violent invasions of white-owned farms, marched through the streets of Harare in a silent display of menace. Afterwards they addressed the media, vowing to “defend the country’s sovereignty” against an opposition takeover. Echoing the fiery, anti-British rhetoric of Mr Mugabe’s election campaign, they said that they would defend Zimbabwe against “a white invasion” under the auspices of Mr Tsvangirai’s Movement for Democratic Change (MDC).

“The election has been seen as a way to reopen the invasion of our people by whites,” Jabulani Sibanda, the veterans’ leader, said. A day earlier the state newspaper carried a thinly sourced report about alleged attempts by white farmers to reclaim their farms after the Opposition’s victory.

A shadow fell over even that parliamentary win when Zanu (PF) claimed that the opposition had bribed electoral officials and that it would contest results for 16 parliamentary seats. If they are overturned, Zanu (PF) would win back its majority. Opposition MPs were astounded by the challenge, backed by the accusation that they had bribed election officials; a tactic more commonly associated with the ruling party.

Mr Sibanda said that the victory declaration by the MDC, which Mr Mugabe casts as a colonial stooge, was “a provocation against us freedom fighters”. The powerful militia supposedly comprises former rebel fighters from the Rhodesian Bush war, but many are young men born long after independence was won 28 years ago.

Reports from rural areas told of the mobilisation of youth militia, who, along with the veterans, carried out much of the intimidation of voters in past elections that was missing this time around.

Six days after the polls there was still no official result of the presidential contest. Last night the Opposition filed an urgent suit in court, demanding that the results be released immediately. The MDC said it expected the case to be heard today.

Foreign governments have joined in the clamour for the results to be announced, expressing fears of foul play. But in a serious blow for the Opposition, South Africa yesterday slammed “a media conspiracy” casting aspersions on the reasons for the delay.

Yesterday, a day after his first public appearance in nearly a week, Mr Mugabe did not look like a man at the end of his reign; wisecracking in front of the cameras as he convened the politburo meeting, joking with a prominent election casualty that he had been “struck by lighting” at the polls.

Opposition politicians met yesterday to hammer out a joint strategy. By law, a run-off should be held within 21 days of the elections, but suspicions are building that Mr Mugabe intends to use controversial and disputed presidential powers to put off a vote for as much as three months, thus giving himself time to intimidate the Opposition. There are also fears he would seek to remove the electoral provisions that made it so hard to steal the vote, such as the publication of results at individual polling stations.

The MDC has said Mr Tsvangirai will submit to a second round “under protest” but still maintains he won the first round outright. Zanu (PF) projections put Mr Tsvangirai as the winner, but with just less than the 50 per cent required to win outright.

One British and one American journalist seized from their hotel on Thursday night were charged under tough media laws yesterday for operating without government accreditation. They are expected to appear in court today.

The United States called for the immediate release of Barry Bearak, a Pulitzer prize-winning correspondent for The New York Times, and revealed that a second American, Dileepan Sivapathasundaram, a senior programme officer with the election monitor group the National Democratic Institute, had been arrested at Harare airport as he tried to leave the country.

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