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 It has been 11 days since Zimbabweans voted for president but no official results have been released. The opposition claims it won the March 29 vote outright and is asking a High Court judge to force publication of the tally. Hearings were to continue Wednesday.
Meanwhile, a state-controlled newspaper claimed that Mugabe's opponent was "begging" for the post of vice president
-- stepping up a push to depict his party as ready to concede.
The Herald newspaper said Morgan Tsvangirai asked for the post in a government of national unity "after being told by his advisers that a possible runoff with President Mugabe for the top job was not in his best interests."
The opposition has repeatedly dismissed claims that they are seeking a unity government as lies spread by a government propaganda campaign. On Tuesday, Secretary-General of the opposition Movement for Democratic Change Tendai Biti said it was "rubbish, rubbish, rubbish."
The opposition maintains that they won the vote outright, with no need for a runoff.
Australia's government appealed Wednesday for the quick release of results, following on similar calls by the United Nations, Britain, the European Union and the United States.
"There is simply no excuse for them being withheld more than a week after the poll," Australian Foreign Minister Stephen Smith said in a statement. "There are mixed signals from the Zimbabwe government on the next steps but all appear to add up to a lack of respect for the will of the people."
Mugabe, who has led Zimbabwe for 28 years with an increasingly dictatorial regime, has virtually conceded that he did not win and already appears to be campaigning for an expected runoff against opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai by intimidating his foes and fanning racial tensions.
Zimbabwe's opposition has accused Mugabe of an orchestrated campaign of violence, with militants driving dozens of white farmers off their land.
Biti said there had been "massive violence" since the elections in traditional ruling party strongholds that voted for the opposition. Ruling party militants, previously used to intimidate government opponents, were being rearmed, he said.
Government officials said there had been no outbreak of violence.
Reports that people are being beaten up and their homes torched have circulated in the capital in recent days but could not be confirmed because of the danger of traveling to the areas.
Zimbabwe's commercial farmers union has said ruling party supporters have forced dozens of white farmers off their land.
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 Biti accused the ruling party of trying to provoke the opposition to take to the streets. So did the Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions, saying civil groups were under "intense pressure" to initiate protests.
The opposition has urged the international community and African leaders, in particular, to try to persuade Mugabe to cede power. But he appeared to be hunkering down.
"I say to our brothers and sisters across the continent, don't wait for dead bodies in the streets of Harare," Biti said Tuesday.
African Union officials have been unable to get in touch with Mugabe in recent days, EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana has said.
South Africa's Jacob Zuma, head of the country's governing party, the African National Congress, repeated earlier statements that "results be announced as a matter of urgency," spokeswoman Jessie Duarte said Wednesday. She cautioned however, that he has made no specific appeal to the government.
Tsvangirai met with Zuma in South Africa on Monday.
Over the weekend, Mugabe urged Zimbabweans to defend land previously seized from white farmers, and militants began invading some of the few remaining white-owned farms. Such seizures started in 2000 as Mugabe's response to his first defeat at the polls
-- a loss in a referendum designed to entrench his presidential powers.
Several farmers reached by The Associated Press said the invasions of their land continued overnight Tuesday, with some farms being retaken by gangs that had left previously. They spoke on condition of anonymity because they were feared recrimination.
Mugabe's land reform was supposed to take large commercial farms -- much of the country's most fertile land
-- owned by about 4,500 whites and redistribute it to poor blacks. Instead, he gave them to ruling party leaders, security chiefs, relatives and friends.
The land redistribution destroyed Zimbabwe's agricultural sector and sent the economy into a free fall. Today, a third of Zimbabweans depend on international food handouts, and another third have fled abroad.
[Associated
Press; By ANGUS SHAW]
Copyright 2008 The Associated
Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published,
broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
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