Zimbabwe's opposition party has expressed confidence it will score a sweeping victory in an upcoming presidential run-off poll, as it presses home demands for a free and fair vote.
The Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) today launched its presidential campaign in Zimbabwe's second-largest city, Bulawayo, which is an opposition stronghold.
MDC said it had approached regional leaders for guarantees of a fair contest.
MDC vice president Thokozani Khupe told a rally it was busy putting demands to the Southern African Development Community.
She said the MDC wanted a monitoring force to make sure there is peace in Zimbabwe.
Ms Khupe told thousands of MDC supporters that the SADC, UN and African Union must be there to observe the election and that there must be a presence of international media.
Police had initially banned the MDC rally, but the opposition party won a court ruling compelling the authorities not to interfere with the meeting.
The MDC held its meeting without leader Morgan Tsvangirai, who postponed his return to the country from South Africa yesterday because of an alleged assassination plot against him.
Mr Tsvangirai is to face veteran President Robert Mugabe in a run-off election on 27 June.
The June election re-run will be held against the backdrop of a political and economic meltdown in which Zimbabweans have grappled with 165,000% inflation, 80% unemployment, and chronic food and fuel shortages which have seen millions flee to neighbouring countries.
The MDC insists Mr Tsvangirai won enough votes against President Mugabe on 29 March to avoid a run-off, but the electoral commission said he had not.
The March vote was followed by violence, which the MDC says left at least 40 of its supporters dead and which it blames on Mr Mugabe's ZANU-PF party.
ZANU-PF in turn accuses the opposition.
Zimbabwe remains in a political stalemate over the presidential poll, although the opposition won enough votes in March to end ZANU-PF's parliamentary majority for the first time since independence from Britain in 1980.
State media said the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission would only allow voters registered for the March election to vote in the run-off.
