Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe will definitely contest a presidential election run-off after failing to defeat his opposition rival in the first round.
The leadership of Zimbabwe's ruling ZANU-PF party met earlier today to decide whether President Robert Mugabe should contest a runoff vote against opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai.
Mr Tsvangirai's Movement for Democratic Change has filed a high court application to force the electoral commission to release results from last weekend's presidential election.
Zimbabwean authorities have charged two foreign journalists arrested in Harare with breaching the country's tough media laws by reporting without accreditation.
New York Times correspondent Barry Bearak, 58, and Steven Bevan, a 45-year-old journalist from Britain, were among four or five people detained last night by police at a Harare guest house.
This morning, US National Security Council spokesman Gordon Johndroe said 'We are troubled by reports we are hearing on the ground in Zimbabwe. Journalists and NGOs should be permitted to do their work.'
Before the election the Harare government refused nearly all applications by foreign media to cover the polls, and it warned last week that it would deal severely with any journalists who entered the country for that purpose.
However a number of news organisations, including RTÉ and the BBC, have been broadcasting reports from correspondents without accreditation.
Watch a report from Richard Downes here
Police also raided a hotel in Harare being used by the opposition Movement for Democratic Change.
The party's secretary general, Tendai Biti, said the raid last night at the prestigious Meikles hotel in the centre of the capital meant President Robert Mugabe and his party were 'preparing for a war' with the opposition.
ZANU-PF has indicated it is gearing up for a second round run-off to try and win the 84-year-old Mr Mugabe a sixth consecutive term and has called a meeting of its politburo today.
The announcement of the election results is expected some time today.
The results for the upper house of Parliament and the presidential contest have not yet been made public.
ZANU-PF spokesmen denied yesterday that the constitution requires results to be published within a certain time.
It was confirmed yesterday that the opposition MDC has won the majority in the lower house.
