The Citizen (Dar es Salaam)
The Citizen Reporter And Agencies
27 June 2008
Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe yesterday rejected calls by fellow African leaders to postpone today's presidential election, saying there could be no interference in his country even from the African Union.
Mugabe's defiance flew in the face of Heads of State of the Southern Africa Development Community (Sadc), including AU Chairman and Tanzanian President Jakaya Kikwete, who on Wednesday urged for postponement of the election because of raging violence and withdrawal of the opposition from the voting.
The Zimbabwean leader also remained firm against world wide condemnation that attracted the voices of people like former South African President and Africa's moral icon Nelson Mandela and the US presidential election hopeful Barrack Obama.
But the embattled Mugabe, 84, said he would be open to discussions with the opposition MDC and would listen to proposals from them.
Addressing his final campaign rally in Chitungwiza, south of Harare, Mugabe said: "We have some of our brothers in Africa making that call (to postpone the vote), pushing us to violate our own law and we have refused to do so, we are sticking to our law."
Mugabe said he would attend an African Union summit in Egypt next weekend but no solutions could be imposed on Zimbabwe from outside. He said he was ready to answer any challenge from within the AU to the elections.
"I know some people are gearing themselves for an attack on Zimbabwe. I want to see any country which will raise its finger in the AU, our elections have been free."
It was not immediately known how the SADC security committee members who issued the postponement call in Swaziland received Harare's defiance.
Opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai who last Sunday pulled out of the vote because of violence said the election will be a sham and vowed not to recognise its outcome. He spoke from the Dutch embassy where he has been taking refuge ever since he pulled out.He said there could be no negotiations with Mugabe if he went ahead with Today's election.
Tsvangirai said if Mugabe declared himself president he would be shunned as an illegitimate leader who killed his own people. He said the ruling party Zanu-PF and members of the military were planning to force people to vote for Mugabe to legitimise his re-election.
Mandela, added his voice to a storm of African and international condemnation of the violence and chaos in Zimbabwe, in a rare political statement that showed the level of concern around the continent.
Zimbabwean information minister Sikhanyiso Ndlovu however dismissed the criticism as only bowing to Western pressure. Mandela who spoke Wednesday in London before an audience at a fundraiser that included Prime Minister Gordon Brown and former President Bill Clinton, talked of a "tragic failure of leadership" in Zimbabwe.
In another move that government critics said was meant to win some sympathy and deflect attention from Mr Mugabe, MDC Secretary-General Tendai Biti was released by a Harare court on bail after two weeks in jail on treason charges according to a party spokesman.
Current South African President Thabo Mbeki who has faced criticism over his soft approach to the situation as a mediator, yesterday also reiterated in his country's parliament his determination to bring together Zimbabwe's warring parties and leaders.
Mbeki who was pressurized by South African MPs to openly state his interest in the crisis defended his skipping of the SADC meeting in Swaziland, maintain that he had not been invited. "Our position has been and remain that of engaging Zimbabwean leaders in dialogue to reach a necessary settlement," Mbeki told Parliament.
He said his delegation was in Harare trying to talk to the parties but did not say whether he opposed or supported today's election.Western nations, including Britain and the United States, have said Mugabe should be further isolated if there is not a free and fair ballot.
The UN Security Council has condemned the political violence and France yesterday joined other nations in saying it would not recognise "the legitimacy of the power that emerges from the rigged elections of June 27."
Obama said the international community must do more to try to help resolve Zimbabwe's political crisi. "What's happening in Zimbabwe is tragic. And frankly, they have been quiet for far too long and allowed Mugabe to engage in this sort of anti-colonial rhetoric that is used to distract from his own profound failures as a leader," he added.
Kenya was the only other country outside the Sadc block to strongly come out against Zimbabwe, with Prime Minister Raila Odinga and foreign affairs minister Moses Wetangula asking AU to consider sending a peace keeping force to restore order.
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