Robert Mugabe, the current head of state in Zimbabwe has said that the scheduled elections will take place in Zimbabwe, despite the fact that there have been calls from many influential organisations, including the United Nations, to cancel the elections due to the fact that the opposition candidate has pulled out.

"The election will take place on Friday in accordance with our laws and constitution," said a spokesperson for the Mugabe regime, talking to AFP.

Ban Ki-moon, secretary general of the United Nations yesterday called for the election to be postponed. He said that he "strongly supports the statement of the Chairman of SADC (Southern African Development Community) that conditions do not exist for a run-off election to be held at this time and that they should be postponed." He also said that he was disappointed that a free and fair election could not take place.