Zimbabwe’s Constitutional court has rejected appeals by President Robert Mugabe and the top opposition leader, Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai, to delay the nation’s scheduled July 31 election, the BBC reported.
 

Last month, Tsvangirai’s Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) party said voter rolls were in “shambles” and that the vote could be rigged. Mugabe, who has ruled the country since 1980, had called for the elections to take place July 31. But under pressure from regional leaders, he joined Tsvangirai in asking for a postponement.

The election would bring to an end the coalition government formed five years ago by the MDC and Mugabe’s Zimbabwe African National Union — Patriotic Front (ZANU-PF) organization.

Mugabe was the official winner of the 2008 election after a campaign marred by charges of widespread fraud, intimidation and violence perpetrated by his supporters.

The British government accused six senior Zimbabwean officials of running a terror campaign in which 85 people were killed, 1,300 tortured or beaten and 34,000 displaced, the London Telegraph reported at the time.