Runoff Elections

President Robert Mugabe's party has lost its majority in parliament after 28 years in power, election officials announced Wednesday, as the aging Zimbabwean leader faced a more damaging blow: the virtual certainty of a runoff in the presidential race that he has scant hope of winning.

Zimbabwe hangs in a dangerous political limbo: A ruling party clique clings to power amid rumors of a coup if President Robert Mugabe loses the upcoming presidential runoff. His opponent, Morgan Tsvangirai, far from facing down military hard-liners, has been out of the country for weeks, fearing assassination.

Zimbabwean opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai is considering whether to pull out of the June 27 presidential runoff election, fearing it will be a charade, a spokesman said Friday. A growing number of African nations, the United States and former colonial power Britain have said they do not believe the balloting will be free and fair because of violence that the opposition blames on President Robert Mugabe.

Things have changed a lot in the land of the billion-dollar plastic shopping bag in the last couple of months. Before the March 29 presidential election, the biggest bank note was $50 million. Now, in the wake of opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai's decision to pull out of the runoff vote scheduled for Friday, there is a $50 billion bank note and one U.S. dollar buys more than 7 billion Zimbabwean dollars.

Zimbabwe opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai sought refuge in the Dutch Embassy here just hours after he pulled out of the presidential runoff election scheduled for Friday, citing rising violence by supporters of longtime President Robert Mugabe. Despite the opposition's withdrawal, the Zimbabwe ruling party's crackdown continued unabated Monday, with 60 opposition activists arrested by riot police in a lunchtime raid at the opposition headquarters.

At meetings across the nation, officials of Zimbabwe's ruling party have warned voters how they will know who casts ballots against longtime President Robert Mugabe in Friday's scheduled runoff election: serial numbers. The officials tell people that the ballot number will allow the ruling party to identify who has voted for the opposition so that they can be killed later, according to people who attended meetings in three neighborhoods around Harare, the capital.

As President Robert Mugabe's party said Saturday that it was poised for massive victory in Zimbabwe's one-candidate presidential runoff, President Bush called the vote "a sham election that ignored the will of the people" and warned of new sanctions.

Jim Martin was feeling the spirit. At historically black Morris Brown College, surrounded by former Barack Obama campaign staffers and African American Reps. John Lewis (D-Ga.) and Bennie Thompson (D-Miss.), the normally unassuming, bespectacled white lawyer had discovered his inner preacher. "We're all in this together!" Martin, 63, intoned. "Talk to me!" a man shouted in response. "The Republicans believe if they have 41 votes in the Senate, they can stop this great president!" "That's right!"

Democrats' dream of a filibuster-proof majority in the U.S. Senate ended Tuesday when Georgia Republican Saxby Chambliss held on to his seat in a closely watched runoff election. With 96% of the precincts reporting, Chambliss was leading Democratic challenger Jim Martin, 57.5% to 42.5%. A runoff became necessary when neither candidate won 50% of the vote in last month's election.

Having failed to gain a clear verdict from voters, Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa and the Los Angeles teachers union braced Wednesday for a costly and divisive runoff election that will determine whether Villaraigosa gains a friendly majority on the Board of Education -- and a long-sought measure of control over the sprawling, troubled school system.