WASHINGTON (Sapa-AFP) - Zimbabwe opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai on Monday told US media that the international community should declare presidential elections "null and void" and organize a new vote.
"We have called upon (outside governments) -- in this unprecedented situation -- to intervene to ensure that the elections are declared null and void if they can do that, and special elections are then organized in a free and fair atmosphere," Tsvangirai told CNN by telephone, without saying where he was speaking from.
CNN said the man speaking on the phone was Tsvangirai, who pulled out of Friday's run-off election citing political violence and took refuge on Monday at the Dutch embassy in Harare.
World leaders have condemned Zimbabwe President Robert Mugabe while the opposition says more than 80 of its supporters have been killed in a campaign of intimidation ahead of the vote and thousands injured.
Apart from new elections, Tsvangirai called on the international community under the leadership of the African Union to push for "some form of a negotiated settlement that will see Zimbabwe go through some form of transition," he said.
Speaking as UN Security Council members conferred on the mounting violence, Tsvangirai said in another interview with National Public Radio that he had pulled out of the run-off because the vote was a sham being orchestrated by Mugabe.
"There's nothing that is going to change the outcome," he told NPR.
"He (Mugabe) has already declared that he will not accept the opposition victory, he's not going to hand over power and that he's going to go to war if he lost.
"Under those circumstances, Mugabe has determined that he wants to stay in power forever and ever."
Tsvangirai said he wanted to see the Security Council renounce the election as well as launch an investigation into human rights abuses to hold Mugabe's government to account.
He said he was encouraged by the response of the head of the South African Development Community, saying the organization had a crucial role to play.
"My assessment is that if there is a collective position by all SADC leaders, that will be sufficient pressure" to force Mugabe to change course and hold a new vote, he said.
The run-off election on Friday without the opposition leader in the race would be "illegitimate" and opposition supporters would not go to the polls, Tsvangirai said.
The leader of the Movement for a Democratic Change said his country was facing catastrophe, with millions more likely to flee.
"So my fear is that the people of Zimbabwe will become more desperate and, in fact, if we have three million or four million Zimbabweans leaving, we are likely to double the figure because no one will feel safe to stay in the country," he told CNN.
