HARARE, June 22: Zimbabwean opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai pulled out of a run-off election against President Robert Mugabe on Sunday, saying a free and fair poll was impossible in the current climate of violence.

Speaking only hours after his Movement for Democratic Change reported its rally had been broken up by pro-Mugabe youth militia, Tsvangirai called on the United Nations and the African Union to intervene to stop “genocide” in the former British colony.

“We in the MDC have resolved that we will no longer participate in this violent, illegitimate sham of an election process,” he told reporters in Harare.

The opposition MDC and Tsvangirai, who beat Mugabe in a March 29 vote but failed to win the absolute majority needed to avoid a second ballot, have repeatedly accused government security forces and militia of strong-arm tactics to ensure a Mugabe victory in the June 27 poll.

Tsvangirai repeated this on Sunday, saying there was a state-sponsored plot to keep the 84-year-old Mugabe in power.

“We in the MDC cannot ask them (the voters) to cast their vote on June 27, when that vote could cost them their lives,” he said.

There was no immediate reaction from Mugabe who in the past has blamed election violence on the opposition.—Reuters