HARARE (Sapa-AFP) - Zimbabwe's opposition accused Robert Mugabe's military intelligence Monday of trying to wipe out its leadership as the ruling party outlined battleplans for a run-off presidential election next month.
With opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai refusing to return home over fears for his safety, his number two Tendai Biti claimed he was one of dozens of top figures in the Movement for Democratic Change(MDC) who were on a hitlist.
"They have been killing our people since 1980 and now Mugabe's military intelligence has compiled a list of 36 to 40 people to be assassinated," MDC secretary general Biti told AFP during a visit to Nairobi.
"Top of the list are our leader Morgan Tsvangirai, myself and our spokesman Nelson Chamisa."
Tsvangirai, who beat Mugabe in the first round of voting on March 29, had been due to return home at the weekend to begin campaigning for the run-off but cancelled at the last minute after the MDC claimed it had uncovered an assassination plot.
The party at the time refused to give any details of the alleged plot which has been laughed off by Mugabe's governing Zimbabwe African National Union - Popular Front (ZANU-PF) party as pure fantasy.
However Biti said it now had firm evidence that pointed to military intelligence involvement.
"We know that there is a group of about 18 snipers from the military intelligence who have been assigned to carry out the killing of our leader and the rest of us. But we will not be cowed," Biti claimed.
The allegations by Biti, who has himself been out of the country since shortly after polling day, will raise the stakes yet further in the countdown to the run-off in which 84-year-old Mugabe is seeking a sixth term in office.
Many analysts believe Tsvangirai, regardless of fears for his safety, is losing the momentum he built up in the first round by declining to return home.
Tsvangirai fell only two percentage points short of an overall victory in the first round and should in theory be the favourite to beat Mugabe in the run-off with another opposition candidate Simba Makoni now out of the race.
ZANU-PF is now trying to seize the initiative, setting up special committees to address failings in the first round which also saw it lose control of parliament for the first time since independence in 1980.
According to a report in the state-run Herald newspaper, one committee would be dedicated to ensuring voters do not go hungry for the run-off while another would help bus voters to the polling booths.
"We have realised that people were hungry when they went to the polls and the committee has been mandated to ensure food production while another committee would also look at mobilisation of transport," said the party's chief spokesman Nathan Shamuyarira.
The paper said the committees had been agreed at a meeting Friday of ZANU-PF's central committee when Mugabe gave a damning assessment of what he called a "disastrous" electoral performance.
Shamuyarira said it was vital that ZANU-PF supporters who stayed at home on the original polling day are encouraged to vote in the June 27 run-off when Mugabe will seek to extend his 28-year rule in the former British colony.
"We believe many people did not go to the polling stations to vote," he said.
"We have also discovered that they did not go to the polls maybe because of over-confidence and we would also like to make sure that all our supporters who did not vote in the last election would do so in the presidential run-off."
ZANU-PF's share of the vote took a notable dive in rural areas, previously seen as strongholds of the ruling party but where near drought conditions have badly hit agricultural production.
The MDC believes authorities are also trying to intimidate rural voters against casting their ballots in the second round through a campaign of violence.
The party says more than 30 supporters have been killed by Mugabe followers and tens of thousands displaced, although the president has accused the opposition of trying to spread terror.
