Kenya PM brands Mugabe's run-off election a 'sham' as lawyers call for release of opposition leader

Kenya's prime minister Raila Odinga today described Zimbabwe's runoff presidential election a "complete sham".

He says that it makes no sense for the basket case nation to hold a second vote, because citizens cannot have confidence that the election's first round was fair.

Mr Odinga, whose own country was ravaged by turmoil following an electoral dispute, called Zimbabwe "an eyesore, an embarrassment to the African continent."

Meanwhile lawyers for detained opposition official Tendai Biti today asked a court to release him unconditionally after police failed to bring him to court to face a treason charge.

Mr Biti, the secretary-general of the Movement for Democratic Change, has been in police custody since he was arrested at Harare airport on Thursday as he returned home ahead of a June 27 presidential election run-off.

MDC leader Morgan Tsvangirai, challenging veteran President Robert Mugabe in the vote, was detained and released at least three times last week.

Police said they were holding Biti for announcing the results of the March 29 general elections prematurely. He faces a possible death penalty if convicted of the treason charge.

'We are seeking a declaration of his continued detention as unlawful and for his immediate release. The application was filed this morning, but we are yet to be allocated a judge to hear it,' defence lawyer Lewis Uriri said.

Held: Tendai Biti appears on a window at the country's high court in Harare at the weekend

Mr Uriri added that it was possible that the police would lay more charges against Biti.

Mr Tsvangirai defeated Mugabe, 84, in the election but failed to win the absolute majority required to avoid a run-off, according to official figures.

Mugabe, who has ruled since independence from Britain in 1980, is fighting to keep power amid a desperate economic crisis that has brought hyperinflation and food shortages and has driven millions of Zimbabweans to seek work abroad.

The MDC accuses the government of waging a violent campaign designed to intimidate the opposition and its supporters ahead of the run-off.

At least 66 opposition activists have been killed by Zanu-PF militia since the March elections, the MDC says. Mugabe blames the opposition for the violence that has caused widespread international concern.

'This election is flawed. It is not free and fair and, therefore, whatever result comes out will be illegitimate,' Maureen Kademaunga, an official with the independent Media Monitoring Project Zimbabwe, told reporters in neighbouring Kenya.

Run-off: Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe and his wife Grace

Mugabe threatened on Monday to arrest MDC leaders over the violence.

Last week he said that his supporters were ready to take up arms to prevent the African nation from falling under the control of the country's white minority and Western powers, a warning that followed a vow to never let the MDC take power.

A government minister dismissed speculation that the election might be cancelled to avoid the risk of a Mr Tsvangirai win.

'There is no intention of us postponing the run-off.

The run-off is going to take place on the 27th of June, so focus on that and the results coming immediately after that date,' Emmerson Mnangagwa, who heads the rural housing and social amenities ministry, said at a press conference in Maputo.

'We of the Zanu-PF are convinced we are winning this particular run-off hands down and with a landslide victory for President Mugabe.'

A senior UN envoy, Assistant Secretary-General for Political Affairs Haile Menkerios, arrived in Zimbabwe late on Monday for a five-day visit to assess Zimbabwe's political and humanitarian crisis before the run-off vote.

Zimbabwe recently banned foreign aid groups from working in the country, raising fears that tens of thousands of Zimbabweans would go hungry without food hand-outs.

Mugabe's government says that the ban does not apply to AIDS-related work and church groups.