Harare - Zimbabwe Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai dismissed Wednesday's election as a “huge farce” and said the results were invalid because of intimidation and ballot-rigging by President Robert Mugabe's ruling party, which is claiming victory.
“This has been a huge farce,” Tsvangirai told a news conference at his MDC party's headquarters in Harare. “In our view, that election is null and void.”
The "outcome of this election is illegitimate” and "does not reflect the will of the people of Zimbabwe”, he added.
"The shoddy manner in which it has been conducted and the consequent illegitimacy of the result will plunge this country in a crisis," he said.
Tsvangirai said he had conveyed his concerns to the African Union and the Southern African Development Community.
"The message we have given is that this is not a credible election."
Meanwhile , a poll monitoring group says it has found a "wide range of problems" and that the poll was compromised by a campaign to stop voters from casting ballots.
Solomon Zwana, head of the Zimbabwe Election Support Network, said that as many as 1 million out of more than 6 million eligible voters were not on voters' lists.
Mugabe has denied allegations of vote-rigging as a smear campaign by opponents.
- Sapa-dpa, Reuters, AP