Zimbabwe's opposition leader, Morgan Tsvangirai, insists he will return to his country and face the terror campaign that is destroying his party, despite fears for his life.

“I will go back,” he vowed to The Sunday Times, after the announcement of official election results that put him ahead of President Robert Mugabe but without an outright victory, meaning a second round of voting will take place.

“Mugabe acts as if Zimbabwe is his private fiefdom and doesn’t care if he has to burn it down to keep power,” he said. “We cannot allow that.”

The front page of yesterday’s state-owned Herald newspaper declared “No winner” after official results released on Friday gave Tsvangirai 47.9% and Mugabe 43.2%. A run-off is expected to be held later this month.

The announcement leaves Tsvangirai’s Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) in a dilemma. To participate would mean accepting a result it insists is fraudulent but, if it refuses, the party leaves the field clear for Mugabe. The party’s leadership was meeting this weekend to decide whether to take part.

Tsvangirai rejected the results. “You want me to consider something based on an outcome I don’t believe,” he said. “I’m absolutely adamant that I got more than 50% of the vote, that I won the election decisively.”

He accused the election commission of cheating him of 80,000 votes – a crucial 3.4% that would have put him over the 50% threshold – and appealed to the international community not to let Mugabe get away with it.

“Democracy is on trial in Africa but democracy as exemplified by Mugabe doesn’t mean a thing,” he said.

“You ask Zimbabweans next time round what’s the point of voting? Why should you expect Zimbabweans to believe in the power of the vote when their will is blatantly ignored?”

He claimed the five-week delay in announcing the presidential results was to buy time for the ruling Zanu-PF to destroy the MDC’s organisation and intimidate the population so they would not dare to vote for the opposition again.

“Zanu-PF wanted the delay to roll out its military plan and create an environment where they could beat people up and have a captive audience then say let’s vote,” he claimed.

The MDC leader has been outside the country for nearly four weeks since Mugabe accused him of treason, putting him in fear of his life.

He accused the South African president, Thabo Mbeki, of hampering attempts to resolve the crisis. Last week Mbeki blocked a British initiative at the United Nations security council to send a UN envoy to Harare.

“I’m frustrated at the duplicitous role Mbeki has played,” Tsvangirai said. “If South Africa was determined to find a solution we could have done so by now.” He added that he had been given personal assurances that the UN secretary-general would send an investigative mission to Zimbabwe.

Recalling that before the elections he had joked that he was in danger of ending up in Guinness World Records for winning the most elections without gaining power, he said: “It’s becoming a reality. We won the last three elections and we’ve proved we won this one beyond any doubt but . . .”

He insisted he would not resort to violence to force out Mugabe. “I’m not responding to violence with violence,” he said.

A source close to Zimbabwe’s ruling politburo said Mugabe would go to any lengths to ensure he won a run-off. “He’s going for broke. They realise they could actually lose, which is too ghastly for them to contemplate.”

According to the source, the ruling party is split between hardliners, who want to proceed with the run-off, and moderates who believe, despite all the intimidation, that Mugabe will still lose the new vote, and who want a government of national unity.

“It’s the hardliners who are running the show,” said the source. “These are people who don’t feel the economic effects.”

Mugabe’s cronies can exchange money at the official rate of Z$60,000 to £1, while the market rate is Z$230m. Last week this helped one minister buy a luxury German car for Z$28m– or 14p – instead of £50,000.

MDC urges UN action on Zimbabwe

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