KEY POINTS:
JOHANNESBURG - Zimbabwe's main opposition group, the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC), will decide tomorrow whether to boycott what is seen as the country's most important election since independence.
The run-off next week between the MDC's Morgan Tsvangirai and Robert Mugabe has been thrown into disarray by a
state-sponsored campaign of terror designed to overturn the regime's first-round defeat and prolong the President's 28-year rule.
At least 85 people have been killed already in a campaign of political terrorism, according to independent sources, and many more are feared dead with fresh reports of violence flooding in from rural areas of the country every day.
Many in the MDC have lost faith with the run-off.
An emergency meeting in Harare tomorrow will make the final call, party sources told The Independent.
Nelson Chamisa, the MDC's spokesman, said the party's Politburo and national executive committee comprising all of the party's representatives from the provinces would convene in the capital, Harare.
"We need a proper election that will give birth to a new dispensation of stability and democracy. The election that Robert Mugabe is shepherding us into next week is a farce.
"It's a charade and there is a strong body of opinion within the party that we should not be part of it at all," he said.
Mr Chamisa - who has in the past been badly beaten himself by Mr Mugabe's thugs - said that there were very strong arguments on both sides between those who wanted a boycott and those who did not want it.
"We will on Sunday resolve the dispute between these two contending arguments," he said.
Extensive canvassing of opposition officials conducted by The Independent yesterday appeared to show a slim majority in favour of contesting the run-off, despite the mounting death toll.
"We are angered by all that has happened and the brutality of it all but I am for participation," said one top MDC official.
"We cannot give Mugabe the pleasure of getting declared president without an election."
That's what he [Mugabe] exactly wants and let's not afford him that pleasure."
In an open letter released yesterday, Mr Tsvangirai appeared to lend his backing to participation in the poll calling for "hope and courage".
But the statement, part of a monthly circular, may have been written prior to the intense pressure for a boycott that has built up in recent days.
Mr Tsvangirai is said to have agreed with an appeal by the South African President, Thabo Mbeki, on Wednesday to scrap the run-off in favour of a negotiated settlement.
Mr Mugabe rejected that proposal.
Mr Chamisa emphasised yesterday that decisions in the MDC were taken collectively.
The spokesman said that there were those who were worried that participation would dignify a fraudulent election and others who felt that a boycott would be a missed opportunity to prove that this election is not free and fair.
The MDC's secretary for Legal Affairs, Innocent Gonese, said he was for participation.
There is now effective consensus in the international community that the run-off will not be free and fair, with increasingly strong criticism of the regime's actions being voiced by neighbouring countries through the Southern African Development Community (SADC).
Roy Bennett, a leading MDC member, told South African television news yesterday that the onslaught of violence will not stop Mr Tsvangirai from participating.
Zimbabweans have been "brutalised", he said. "Beaten up.
"On the backdrop of that we have to compete in these elections to show the total illegitimacy of them."
Mr Bennett said events so far should give the international community "reason to intervene, or reason to speak out", but he criticised regional efforts led by South Africa, adding that Mr Mbeki should step down as mediator "and start speaking out".
The opposition Senator David Coltart said that while he would not be taking part in the MDC decision tomorrow, as he is part of a separate faction, he hoped to avoid a boycott.
"We have no choice but to participate. It's like a war zone but if one pulls out one hands it to Mugabe and to that extent we have to make him go through the process and force him to steal it."
European Union leaders made a new threat yesterday of further sanctions over the election violence.
The EU has an arms embargo on Zimbabwe as well as visa bans and asset freezes on Mr Mugabe and other officials.
Gordon Brown said: "I think we have to remind President Mugabe and the Zimbabwean regime that the eyes of the world are on what is happening in that country."
But Dimitrij Rupel, the Foreign Minister of the EU presidency holder, Slovenia, conceded the bloc could do little.
Observers from Western countries have been barred.
The 14-nation SADC is sending 380 monitors for the vote.
The independent Zimbabwe Election Support Network, which played a key role in recording the first round of voting, said that only 500 of its 8,800 local monitors had been accredited.
And reports emerged last night that entire rural districts were barring opposition polling agents.
At the same time polling stations are being positioned on land given to the same so-called war veterans who are responsible for some of the worst violence.
Meanwhile, a magistrate rejected a bid yesterday to release the MDC's secretary general.
Tendai Biti is being held on treason charges that could carry the death penalty.
He was ordered to remain behind bars until 7 July, although the High Court is due to hear an application for bail on Tuesday.
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