Pressure mounts to call off election

African pressure mounted yesterday for President Robert Mugabe to call off a June 27 election after the UN Security Council issued an unprecedented condemnation of violence against opposition supporters.

Both Senegalese President Abdoulaye Wade and South African ruling ANC leader Jacob Zuma said the presidential run-off must be postponed after opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai withdrew from the vote and fled to the Dutch embassy in Harare.

Mugabe accused former colonial power Britain and other Western countries of lying about the violence because they wanted to interfere.