The New Nation - Internet Edition

AFP, Harere

With his rival back in the country, Zimbabwe's President Robert Mugabe fought for his political survival Sunday as he kicked off his election campaign.

Zimbabwe opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai arrived home Saturday after a six-week absence vowing to end the three decade rule of post-independence leader Mugabe in a run-off election scheduled for June 27.

Despite fears of an assassination plot and the threat of treason charges, Tsvangirai returned to Zimbabwe looking relaxed and launched into a blistering attack on Mugabe who has presided over the economic collapse of the country. Mugabe was set to deliver his first official campaign speech in Harare on Sunday in which he is expected to tear into Tsvangirai and his Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) party with his habitual fiery rhetoric. Justice Minister Patrick Chinamasa set the tone when he linked the opposition to colonial-era enemies Britain and white farmers-but he admitted that the ruling ZANU-PF party was now fighting for survival.

"We are now fighting with our backs to the wall," he told the state-owned Sunday Mail newspaper.

Former trade union leader Tsvangirai defeated Mugabe in a first round of voting on March 29, but not by enough to secure an outright victory.

He had been abroad since shortly after a first round of elections on March 29, lobbying regional leaders to pressure Mugabe into hold elections under the watchful eye of regional peacekeepers and election observers.

Both the MDC and ZANU-PF were scheduled to hold rallies on Sunday.

The aftermath of the disputed first-round polls, the results of which were delayed by nearly five weeks, has been marked by violence that the opposition claims is designed to rig the run-off.

Rights groups and the United Nations have said the attacks are being directed at followers of Tsvangirai's Movement for Democratic Change (MDC), with pro-government militias accused of a campaign of terror in the countryside.