Observers say Zimbabwe poll unfair

Zimbabwe's one-candidate presidential election was not free and fair and it should be held again, African observers said on Sunday.

The observers from the Pan-African parliament, one of the few monitoring groups in Zimbabwe for Friday's vote, condemned the poll after President Robert Mugabe said he was certain of a sweeping victory.

Officials say they hope to release the result on Sunday. That would allow Mugabe to be sworn in for a new term, extending his 28 years of unbroken rule, before attending an African Union summit in Egypt on Monday.

Mugabe was the only candidate after MDC opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai withdrew a week ago because of government-backed violence which he said had killed nearly 90 of his supporters. "The current atmosphere prevailing in the country did not give rise to conditions for the holding of free and fair democratic elections. These elections were not free and fair," said Marwick Khumalo, head of the Pan-African parliament observer team. "Conditions should be put in place for the holding of free, fair and credible elections as soon as possible in line with the African Union declaration on the principles governing democratic elections," Khumalo added.

He said the AU and the Southern African Development Community (SADC) should engage both sides in the Zimbabwe crisis in negotiations for a transitional administration.

The monitors said they had recorded violence and intimidation across the country, abductions and assaults which had led to some deaths and displacement of population.

Mugabe, who thrives in defiance, has rejected a wave of condemnation of the vote from within and outside Africa and says he will confront his critics at the summit in Sharm el Sheikh.

"The returns show that we are winning convincingly, that we have won in all the 26 constituencies in Harare, an MDC stronghold where we won in only one constituency in March. That is the trend," Mugabe said in footage broadcast on state television on Sunday.

"We are heading for a sweeping victory," Mugabe said in the local Shona language at a relative's funeral late on Saturday.

Mugabe and his ZANU-PF party lost elections on March 29 but Tsvangirai fell short of the majority needed for outright victory