World Jun. 27, 2008 - 05:34AM JST ( 2 )

HARARE —

Robert Mugabe claimed Thursday to be on the eve of securing a fresh mandate to rule Zimbabwe, brushing aside growing calls to shelve a ballot branded a “sham” after the withdrawal of the opposition leader.

As former South African President Nelson Mandela added to international pressure on Mugabe over violence in the country, the veteran leader said he would continue governing Zimbabwe as he saw fit and would be willing to talk to the opposition—but only after he had won a sixth term in office.

Strengthened by increasing signs of regional and international exasperation, opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai meanwhile said the 84-year-old Mugabe was in the process of self-destructing regardless of the outcome of Friday’s vote.

In his last rally before the country goes to the polls, Mugabe said he would be “magnanimous” in a victory which is assured given that Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) leader Tsvangirai pulled out of the contest on Sunday.

“Should we emerge victorious, which I believe we will, sure we won’t be arrogant, we will be magnanimous and say ‘let’s sit down and talk,’ and talk we shall,” Mugabe told a rally on the outskirts of Harare.

“So there it is, let the MDC reject it or accept it. We will continue to rule this country in the way we believe it should be ruled.”

Reacting to his comments, MDC spokesman Nelson Chamisa called it a “positive step” but said Mugabe needed “to walk the talk.”

South African President Thabo Mbeki has been leading regional efforts to forge some kind of unity government since the first round of elections on March 29 when Tsvangirai fell just short of an outright majority.

Tsvangirai himself also raised the prospect of a broad-based government on Thursday by speaking of his willingness to share power on the basis of the first-round polls which gave him 47.9% against Mugabe’s 43.2%.

But with both men regarding themselves as the country’s rightful leaders there seemed little realistic chance of an end to the impasse.

“They (Mugabe’s ruling ZANU-PF party) lost the election in March and what they’re going to do is to say to the world that we were voted in on Saturday by the people,” Tsvangirai said in an interview with the BBC.

“Mugabe will be sworn in as president and go around saying, ‘I am the legitimate leader’ and yet of course the whole world has condemned it.”

International criticism International criticism of Mugabe has intensified, with Mandela speaking of a “tragic failure of leadership in our neighboring Zimbabwe” in a rare public statement on the crisis.

U.S. President George W Bush has said Friday’s polls “appear to be a sham,” adding he hoped the region would “continue to highlight the illegitimacy of the elections,” while U.N. chief Ban Ki-moon renewed his call to postpone the election “until such time when we can create fair and credible conditions.”

In an emergency meeting in Swaziland on Wednesday, the 14-nation Southern African Development Community (SADC) reiterated their desire for the poll to be postponed to allow more time for talks.

“The political situation appears not to be permissive for holding the run-off elections in a manner that will be free and fair,” Tomaz Augusto Salomao, SADC secretary general, said after the get-together.

The Zimbabwe crisis is also expected to figure prominently at an African Union summit in Egypt next week. While vowing to attend the Sharm el-Sheikh gathering, Mugabe said he would not bow to pressure from his peers.

“We want it to be a voluntary process of our own people, not being dictated by anyone, something being done on our own volition—not even the AU. It has no right to dictate to us,” he said.

In withdrawing from the vote, Tsvangirai said he could not ask supporters to cast ballots when it could cost them their lives.

The MDC says more than 80 of its supporters have been killed and thousands injured in a campaign of intimidation in the approach to the run-off which was triggered by Tsvangirai’s first round victory on March 29.

A boycott of the election was endorsed Thursday by a coalition of leading civil society groups, ranging from rights groups to students, which said in a joint statement that “acts of brutality that have occurred over the past three months have made any semblance of a free and fair election impossible.”

Mugabe, who has ruled since independence from Britain in 1980, is accused by critics of leading Zimbabwe’s economy to ruin and trampling on human rights.

The country is facing the world’s highest inflation rate and major food shortages while foreign aid workers have been told to suspend their operations.

Wire reports