"Some African countries have done worse things and when I go to the AU meeting next week [in Egypt], I am going to challenge some leaders to point out when we have had worse elections.

I would like some African leaders who are making these statements to point at me and we would see if those fingers would be cleaner than mine.

We remain open to discussions, and proposals that come in good spirit would be listened to (but) not because these have been dictated to us from outside.

There are countries that have had elections in worse conditions in Africa and we have never interfered.

For any country to say stop the elections, to tell us to violate our laws would not only be unfair, but completely lawless to us. We reject such moves, it does not matter where these are coming from but such suggestions are completely unacceptable.

We hold our elections within the precincts of our laws. Yes, advice can be given but not to be dictated to us. No one should be deluded into believing that they are so and so and what they say would be listened to.

We are surprised by what some SADC leaders are saying. Some are even calling for President Mbeki to stop current mediation efforts while others want him to be replaced.

These reckless statements being made by some SADC leaders could lead to the breaking up of SADC. When we formed the regional bloc, it was agreed that members of the bloc would quietly intervene in areas that face problems and we have done that in some countries although we had to use military intervention in the DRC.

There are, however, some countries wanting to be better SADC members from others and Zimbabwe would never accept it.

We are a peaceful country. Although there have been incidents of violence, the country has remained quiet and calm.

The incidents of violence by the MDC and in some cases by Zanu-PF supporters, in retribution after having their houses burnt, does not make the situation insecure in terms of law and order.

I have been everywhere around the country, there is peace and some statistics telling blatant lies are naturally offending. I would rather have the world leave us alone. They can impose sanctions on us, but we have the capacity to work for ourselves because we have the land, resources and the capacity to work for the country.

There are, however, some African countries that are content with budgets that have been made by others, they have weaknesses that leave them subjecting to their donors.

The British should stop their devious, deceitful, insidious and deceptive activities on Zimbabwe. They should keep quiet about us, they should stop telling lies about our bilateral dispute which is over the land issue.

The land issue has been the case even during the Lancaster Conference where they [the British] promised to pay compensation for the land we would take from their sons.

While we have always been prepared to talk about the issue, they have refused during the Blair era and even now with the nonsensical Brown who is much more idiotic. We, however, feel pity for Bush for supporting the British.

They should come out and say we did wrong on the land issue. We will never go back on the land issue. Never, never, never. Win or lose, we will not go back on the land issue and that is where we differ with our colleagues in the MDC who think they would give the land back to the whites and that would be calling for war.

A Zanu-PF win does not mean we would push opposition parties into oblivion. The MDC has won a considerable number of seats in Parliament, there is a role they would play in Parliament.

We are not going to make a Kenya in Zimbabwe. Kenya is Kenya, Zimbabwe is Zimbabwe and nothing forbids us from doing what we want in our country.

Victory by us does not mean the death of MDC or any other party that wants to participate in our electoral process.

We want our brothers in the MDC to come to us to discuss our problems, but the MDC should be totally local, they should respect our sovereignty and tell us to work together as Zimbabweans.

It is treason to call for war in Zimbabwe. They should do away with such utterances and stop writing irresponsible documents. If they mean well, then we are open to discussion.

We are not going to be arrogant, we would rather be magnanimous and they are free to talk to us as fellow Zimbabweans.

We held our elections in March and there was no winner. Although the MDC led in those elections, it did not get the required percentage poll of above 50 percent and in accordance to the laws of the country, the two leading candidates would go for a run-off.

We decided as Zimbabwe to re-organise the second phase of the election, a presidential run-off. The MDC did not want the run-off. Sure, they [the MDC] led in the March election, but our electoral laws have it that we hold the run-off.

There has been violence in the country after the March 29 elections and that violence from all parties must come to an end, no retribution and we must look to the future."

These are the remarks made by Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe to an election rally at Chitungwiza Town Centre on June 26 2008 as reported on in a front page story in The Herald (Harare) June 27 2008

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