Harare: Zimbabwe's second-round presidential election has been delayed but will take place by July 31 at the latest, according to a government document obtained by AFP today.

Under law, the second round was meant to take place within 21 days of the first round results being published, but this limit has been extended to 90,states the government document, which is to be published tomorrow.

First-round results were published on May 2.

"The period within which a second election to the office of president is to be held, is hereby extended from 21 days to 90 days from the date of announcement of the results of the first poll," said the document, which was read to AFP by a source at the printers.

The long-delayed and disputed results declared on May 2 gave opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai a win over veteran leader Robert Mugabe, but Tsvangirai failed to garner enough votes to avoid a run-off.

Opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) slammed the decision to delay the second round vote as clearly illegal.

"This is criminal and scandalous conduct in continuation," MDC spokesman Nelson Chamisa told AFP.

"First they withheld the election results, then they had an illegal recount and now they are talking about the 90 days.

"This is going to be 90 days of beating up people, killing and destroying property."

Source : PTI