Zimbabwe’s President Robert Mugabe has said he will quit after 33 years in power if he loses Wednesday’s election.

“If you lose you must surrender,” the Zanu-PF party leader said.

His remarks came as Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai’s Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) party accused Zanu-PF of doctoring the voters’ roll.

Zanu-PF denied the accusation, saying it was the responsibility of the electoral commission, which released the roll only on the eve of polls.

Some names also appear twice or three times with variations to their ID numbers or home address.

Zimbabwe Electoral Commission (Zec) has not commented on the allegations.

‘Sharing tea’

Mr Mugabe, 89, will be facing Mr Tsvangirai, 61, in the presidential ballot.

The two long-time rivals have been sharing power since 2009, under a deal brokered by the regional bloc to end conflict that marred elections in 2008.

At a press conference at State House in the capital, Harare, Mr Mugabe told journalists that he and Mr Tsvangirai had learnt to work together and could even share a pot of tea.

Responding to a question from the BBC, the president, who was in a jovial mood, said he would step down if he lost and insisted that there had been “no cheating”.

But the MDC has said the electoral roll released on Tuesday by Zec dates back to 1985 and is full of anomalies.

“You cannot have a voters’ roll given to you less than 24 hours before an election,” Jameson Timba of the MDC told the BBC’s Focus on Africa programme.

“The voters’ roll in itself is in total shambles. We’ve got a good number of duplicate names,” he said.

“You’ll find that a person is registered twice – same name, same date of birth, same physical address and a slight change is made to that person’s ID number.”

Zanu-PF’s Bright Matonga denied allegations of vote-rigging, saying the MDC had play

Zanu-PF’s Bright Matonga denied allegations of vote-rigging, saying the MDC had played a part in the compilation of the electoral roll.