Norway's Prime Minister Jens Stoltenberg said that Norway would not recognize Friday's presidential election in Zimbabwe, nor Robert Mugabe as the country's legitimate president for another term, according to reports from Oslo Sunday.
"This is an election which does not comply with the requirements for a free and fair election, and it is therefore an election which Norway like a great number of other countries does not recognize," the Norwegian public broadcaster NRK quoted Stoltenberg as saying in a statement.
Norway would urge the African Union not to recognize Friday's election, he added.
The Norwegian prime minister hopes that regional mediation will bring about a political solution to the conflict.
Zimbabwe held the presidential run-off election on Friday as scheduled despite opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai's withdrawal from the race.
Tsvangirai received 47.9 percent of the votes in the first round of election held on March 29, followed by Mugabe's 43.2 percent. An outright winner needs to obtain an absolute majority of the votes, otherwise a run-off needs to be held, according to Zimbabwe's law.
Source:Xinhua
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