World leaders say Zimbabwe vote illegitimate

By Dominic Evans

LONDON (Reuters) - World leaders condemned as illegitimate Zimbabwe's one-candidate election on Friday and Nobel Peace laureate Archbishop Desmond Tutu said they had the right to intervene to end the crisis.

Defying international pressure to call off or delay the vote, President Robert Mugabe went ahead despite the withdrawal of opposition contender Morgan Tsvangirai who accused Mugabe's supporters of violence and intimidation.

"We deplore the actions of the Zimbabwean authorities -- systematic violence, obstruction and intimidation -- which have made a free and fair presidential run-off election impossible," foreign ministers from the Group of Eight rich countries said after meeting in Japan.

The United States said the U.N. Security Council may consider fresh sanctions next week against Zimbabwe, where the economy has collapsed. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice branded Friday's election a "sham".

"There was a strong sentiment in that room today that what is going on in Zimbabwe is simply unacceptable in the 21st century and it can't be ignored by the international community," she said after G8 ministers met in Kyoto.

The G8 said Zimbabwe's first round of voting in March, when Tsvangirai beat Mugabe but did not get an outright majority, must be respected, and it would not accept the legitimacy of a government that did not reflect the will of the people.

The European Union's foreign policy chief said Friday's election was invalid and the deteriorating situation in Zimbabwe posed a threat to regional stability.

"I trust that the relevant African authorities (the Southern African Development Community and the African Union) will draw the necessary conclusions, in the interests not only of Zimbabwe but of the whole of Africa," he said in a statement.

The top official of the African Union said there could be no immediate solution.

"The problem of Zimbabwe, I am convinced it will be solved in a credible way. But please give us time to solve it with our heads of state," Jean Ping, chairman of the AU Commission, said at a meeting of foreign ministers who were preparing for an African summit in Egypt on Monday.

"PERVERSION OF DEMOCRACY"

Canada's Prime Minister Stephen Harper described the vote as "as ugly perversion of democracy".

"We are working with the international community to bring in strong measures to pressure the Mugabe regime which has illegitimately stolen the election," he said in Ottawa.

Germany's foreign minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier said G8 ministers believed that since Zimbabwe's voters were offered no choice, "a government that doesn't reflect the people's will cannot be accepted by the international community."

Britain also said the vote gave Mugabe no mandate to extend his 28-year rule. "It is very clear on the part of Britain that there is no legitimacy to the government of Zimbabwe and Robert Mugabe," Foreign Secretary David Miliband said.