Harare | Monday
ZIMBABWE’S President Robert Mugabe has ruled out fresh elections after disputed polls that returned him to power last month, Zimbabwe’s state media said on Monday.
”This talk about fresh elections, where will these be re-run?” the daily Herald quoted Mugabe as saying.
He was speaking in Shona at an election victory celebration at his rural home in Kutama, 80 kilometres west of the capital on Sunday.
Mugabe won the March 9-11 elections by 56% of the vote against 42% for his main rival, Morgan Tsvangirai of the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC), according to official results.
”If they (Britain and its Western allies) want, let them help the MDC in Britain and do their elections there. That’s where they can win. They can never win elections in Zimbabwe. … They will never ever rule this country,” he said.
Mugabe admitted that last month’s polls were tough but blamed problems on the involvement of the former colonial power Britain which backed Tsvangirai.
President Mugabe’s party, the Zimbabwe African National Union – Patriotic Front (Zanu-PF), has rejected international criticism and calls for fresh polls insisting that the vote was free and fair.
The election has been criticised by the United States, the European Union and the Commonwealth, which has suspended Zimbabwe’s membership for one year.
Tsvangirai refused to recognise Mugabe’s re-election, saying the poll was ”massively rigged” and citing widespread pre-election violence targeting his supporters. – Sapa-AFP