Mar 29, 2008, 9:29 GMT
Harare - For journalists, the thing that sets Morgan Tsvangirai apart from other political leaders in Zimbabwe is his punctuality.
'Whenever he calls a press conference, he's there on the nail,' said one veteran correspondent. 'He starts immediately and doesn't care who's late.'
President Robert Mugabe routinely keeps the media waiting up to six hours.
Tsvangirai, a 56-year-old former national trade union boss, also appears to be the favourite of a major slice of Zimbabweans, though for different reasons.
'I respect Tsvangirai because he is a democrat. He has fought Mugabe for nearly 10 years with only democratic means,' Nicholas, a software engineer from Harare, said.
His rallies, at which supporters wave red cards signalling their desire to oust Mugabe, have attracted large crowds countrywide.
In parliamentary elections in 2000 - less than a year after the formation of his now divided party, the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) - Tsvangirai lost the vote.
The High Court later overturned the result on the grounds of the climate of violent intimidation in the constituency but the court records mysteriously disappeared before an appeal.
In the last presidential poll in 2002, Tsvangirai was again the loser, with 400,000 votes behind Mugabe out of a total of 3.1 ballots cast, in another election marked by savage violence and further evidence of cheating.
Tsvangirai entered this election with his party and his reputation damaged by an ongoing split in the MDC for which he was responsible but with a lot of admiration for his personal courage, after his severe beating by police in March 2007.
Despite the perception of his being indecisive, timid and easily manipulated, Tsvangirai's support 'remains intact,' said political science professor Eldred Masunugure. 'There is evidence that his backing is solid.'
Morgan Richard Tsvagirai was born in the remote Buhera district of south-east Zimbabwe, the son of a bricklayer. Unlike his two presidential race opponents, Mugabe and ruling party rebel Simba Makoni now standing as an independent, Tsvangirai was unable to continue studying after passing his O-levels.
He began working as a miner, graduated to being foreman until trade union work drew him. He rose quickly, and took over the ruling party-dominated trade union movement in the late 1980s and immediately was in trouble for failing to toe the party line. He was arrested and held in detention without trial for six weeks.
As economic conditions in Zimbabwe stagnated, labour became increasingly vocal, and Tsvangirai as secretary general of the Zimbabwe National Congress of Trade Unions, organized highly successful national strikes.
In 1997, his profile was so worrying for the regime that a group of Mugabe's war veteran militia tried to throw him out of the 10th-floor window. They were stopped when his secretary walked in.
In 2000 he stunned Mugabe and his ruling Zanu-PF party by leading opposition in a referendum on a state-manipulated draft constitution, and convincingly inflicting on Zanu-PF its first national electoral defeat in 20 years.
Since then, Tsvangirai has borne the brunt of a continuous state campaign against him. He has been repeatedly arrested, charged three times with treason - including a two-year trial over what the judge said was a faked plot to assassinate Mugabe - and hospitalized in March last year for head injuries sustained during a police beating.
'All that has had the effect of making him a martyr to ordinary Zimbabweans,' said a Western diplomat.
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