UN chief calls for runoff to be scrapped

UN chief calls for runoff to be scrapped

DEFIANT: Mugabe campaigned on Monday and urged supporters to vote on Friday, resisting calls to postpone the election

• UN envoy meets Mugabe over election

• Mugabe, Ban deal over UN envoy

• Zimbabwe gloats over UN stalemate

• Tsvangirai meets UN chief over crisis

• Text of Mugabe speech at 62 session of UN General Assembly

• Mugabe slams Bush on human rights

• Obert Madondo: In Mugabe, Africa has wrong ace

• UN rebukes Mugabe for justifying police brutality

• Text of Mugabe's speech at UN General Assembly

• Annan backs out of Zimbabwe mediation

• Zimbabwe is not about to die - Mugabe

• Analysts back Annan's Zimbabwe plan

• Annan to go ahead with Zimbabwe visit

• Tsvangirai urges UN intervention in Zim

• It is possible to defeat Zanu PF

• Mbeki confirms Annan intervention in Zim

• Zanu PF, MDC negotiate transition government

• Annan snubs Mugabe on Africa tour

• Annan 'dismayed' as Zimbabwe rejects aid

UNITED Nations chief Ban Ki-moon has urged the Zimbabwe government to postpone Friday's run off presidential elections because of continuing violence and the "understandable" decision by the opposition candidate to withdraw from the polls.

"Conditions do not exist for free and fair elections right now in Zimbabwe," Ban told reporters.

"There has been too much violence, too much intimidation. A vote held in these conditions would lack all legitimacy."

The Secretary-General, who has been in touch with a number of African leaders on the ongoing crisis in Zimbabwe, said that they all agreed that the elections should be postponed until the right conditions are in place.

"I would strongly discourage the authorities with going ahead with the run-off on Friday. It will only deepen divisions within the country and produce a result that cannot be credible," he stated.

On Sunday, Morgan Tsvangirai, leader of the opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) announced he was withdrawing from the June 27 run-off in which he was set to face President Robert Mugabe.

The country has been marred by deadly political violence since the first round of the presidential election on March 29 with the opposition saying that its supporters are being beaten up and even murdered by the Mugaba's supporters, a charge which the government denies.

"The campaign of threats and intimidation we have seen in Zimbabwe goes against the very spirit of democracy," said the Secretary-General. "Instead of openness, free competition and transparency, we have witnessed fear, hostility and blatant attacks against Zimbabwean citizens."

The Zimbabwe governmenton Monday appeared firmly on course to hold elections on Friday, and impervious to growing pressure from outside.

President Mugabe hit the campaign trail, accusing Britain and the United States of lying in order to trigger outside military intervention.

"Britain and her allies are telling a lot of lies about Zimbabwe, saying a lot of people are dying. These are all lies because they want to build a situation to justify their intervention in Zimbabwe," Mugabe told cheering supporters at a football ground in Chipinge. - AP
JOIN THE DEBATE ON THIS ARTICLE ON THE NEWZIMBABWE.COM FORUMS
newsdesk@newzimbabwe.com