"[They] came to Musama business centre in Murewa and threatened MDC supporters with death if they 'revote' MDC in the anticipated election rerun," the affidavit says. "Shops were forced to close down; people were forced to attend the ZANU-PF rally." On Sunday electoral officials announced a delay in the partial recount of the disputed March 29 election. The delay increased opposition concern about possible vote-rigging by ZANU-PF.

The recount could overturn the results of the parliamentary election, which showed ZANU-PF losing its majority to the MDC for the first time. Results of the parallel presidential election have not been made public, but the MDC leader, Morgan Tsvangirai, now in exile in South Africa, says he won. A run-off election will be called if the recount shows that neither side won at least 50 per cent of the presidential vote. Dr Parirenyatwa's meeting, on April 10, came as ZANU-PF began what has become an extensive campaign of beatings and intimidation in areas where Mr Mugabe and the ruling party lost ground in the presidential and parliamentary elections.

In the following days, party militias and the army established torture camps in several provinces, where they took MDC members to extract the names of opposition activists and deter the opposition from campaigning before the expected run-off election. Mobs loyal to Mr Mugabe have forced about 3000 people to flee their homes. Victims are coming to the capital, Harare, seeking safety and medical treatment.

Chingatayi Chimomo, 13, was separated from his parents when a ZANU-PF gang burned down his home, 200 kilometres north-east of Harare. His father, John, was an MDC parliamentary candidate. "We ran into the forest and saw about 50 people burning our house down and taking all our things," the boy said. "My father … told us to run away and he ran away to another place. "It was midnight, a lot of people came and two had guns, and they put fire and broke everything and they took all our property. My father knows I am here but I don't know when we will go home. There is nothing left at home."

Chingatayi was safe on Sunday in a Harare hospital. The staff will not send him away, even though wards are overflowing with victims of Mr Mugabe's thugs. A spokesman for the MDC, Nelson Chamisa, said 10 opposition supporters had been murdered since the election and hundreds assaulted.

"I can confirm that 10 of our members have died, four of them in the last few days, due to political violence perpetrated by ruling party supporters in the aftermath of the elections," Mr Chamisa said. Amid mounting regional concern about instability and bloodshed, the 53-member African Union urged Zimbabwe to release the election results immediately, and called for restraint from all parties. Guardian News and Media; Reuters; Telegraph, London