By Cris Chinaka
HARARE (Reuters) - Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe onThursday rejected African calls to postpone a presidentialelection on Friday, saying there could be no interference inhis country even from the African Union.
Mugabe, 84, who is bound to extend his 28-year-rule in theone candidate election, said he was open to discussions withthe opposition MDC. Its leader Morgan Tsvangirai has withdrawnfrom the election after a wave of deadly attacks on hissupporters.
Addressing a campaign rally in Chitungwiza, south ofHarare, Mugabe said: "We have some of our brothers in Africamaking that call (to postpone the vote), pushing us to violateour own law and we have refused to do so, we are sticking toour law."
Mugabe said he would attend an African Union summit inEgypt next week but no solutions could be imposed on Zimbabwefrom outside. He said he was ready to answer any challenge fromwithin the AU to the elections.
"I know some people are gearing themselves for an attack onZimbabwe. I want to see any country which will raise its fingerin the AU, our elections have been free."
A security committee of the Southern African DevelopmentCommunity (SADC) on Wednesday called for the vote to bepostponed, saying Mugabe's re-election as the only candidatecould lack legitimacy because of chronic political violence.
The committee includes AU chairman Tanzania.
Nigeria, an African heavyweight, backed the SADC's call,saying it was doubtful a credible poll could be held under thecurrent circumstances.
"Nigeria joins the Southern African Development Communityand well meaning friends of Zimbabwe in calling forpostponement of the run-off elections," the Foreign Ministrysaid late on Thursday.
Opposition leader Tsvangirai last Sunday pulled out of thevote because of violence that he says has killed almost 90 ofhis Movement of Democratic Change supporters. He has takenrefuge in the Dutch embassy ever since.
Tsvangirai said earlier there could be no negotiations withMugabe if he went ahead with Friday's election. He said that ifMugabe declared himself president he would be shunned as anillegitimate leader who killed his own people.
But he said people would be forced to vote in the election."What will happen tomorrow is that people will be forced tovote ... because the military were mobilised to accompany thisprocess," Tsvangirai said in an interview with Portuguese radiostation Renascenca, which gave Reuters a transcript.
MANDELA JOINS CONDEMNATION
Africa's most iconic figure, Nelson Mandela, added hisvoice to a storm of African and international condemnation ofthe violence and chaos in Zimbabwe.
He told a speech at a dinner for his 90th birthday inLondon that there had been a "tragic failure of leadership inour neighbouring Zimbabwe."
U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon reiterated that violenceand intimidation must be ended and that the election should bepostponed.
"The situation seems to be evolving, but I am stillconcerned that if the election is held under thesecircumstances, there will be serious questions andcontroversies about the legitimacy," he told reporters in NewYork.
Diplomats at the U.N. in New York said the Security Councilmight call an emergency meeting over the weekend if theelection goes ahead and Mugabe declares himself the winner.
Mugabe, president since independence from Britain, haspresided over Zimbabwe's slide from one of the region's mostprosperous nations to a basket case with inflation estimated tohave hit at least 2 million percent.
A loaf of bread now costs 6 billion Zimbabwe dollars, or150 times more than at the time of the first round of electionson March 29 when Tsvangirai defeated Mugabe but fell short ofthe absolute majority needed for an outright victory.
Mugabe blames the crisis on sanctions by former colonialruler Britain and other Western countries.
Zimbabwean police said Britain and the United States werebacking plans by Tsvangirai's MDC and some NGOs to disrupt thevote with violence, including burning down voting tents.
Tsvangirai tried to step up the pressure by telling Mugabethat his chances of negotiating an end to Zimbabwe'scatastrophic collapse would end on Friday.
Mugabe said he was open to discussions with other partiesbut stressed that any solution to the crisis in the countryneeded to come from Zimbabweans.
In a later interview with Sky News, Tsvangirai challengedSouth African President Thabo Mbeki, the designated regionalmediator in Zimbabwe, to take urgent action to end the crisis.
Mbeki, leader of Africa's biggest economic power, has beenwidely criticised for being soft on Mugabe despite a crisisthat has flooded his country with millions of refugees.
Tsvangirai's lieutenant Tendai Biti was released on bail onThursday after being held for two weeks on treason charges.Bail was set at 1 trillion Zimbabwean dollars -- about $90, hislawyer said.
(Additional reporting by MacDonald Dzirutwe and NelsonBanya in Harare, Louis Charbonneau at the United Nations, SusanCornwell in Kyoto; Writing by Barry Moody and Marius Bosch;Editing by Richard Balmforth)
