'No more election delays,' says Mugabe

President Robert Mugabe says elections will be held before the 31st of July in compliance with a Constitutional Court ruling that compels him to have elections not later than the stated date.

President Mugabe, who was speaking in an interview with the ZBC News in Yokohama, Japan, where he is attending the 5th Tokyo International Conference for African Development (TICAD,) said he accepts the Constitutional Court's judgement and will comply with the ruling.

Mugabe said all the electoral processes will be done in accordance with the judgement and dates will be announced as soon as consultations with the Minister of Justice and Legal Affairs are concluded.

"Well, that is the ruling of the court and when the court gives a ruling, and the ruling is a judgment, and the judgment is meant to establish how people should react to it. We accepted that judgment and we will work in accordance with that judgment, let it be said, of course, that the GPA was never meant, really, to exist for more than 18 months and when we started we had 18 months in mind as duration it had and thereafter we will have an election, but we did agree along the way that we should have a people driven constitution.....we have been asking for postponements and now we have this individual asking on an emergency basis at the court and elections will be held. We have offended against the law twice and we can't anymore, and anyway elections will be held within the given timeframes," he said.

The MDC T has been claiming that the Supreme Court overstepped its mandate by dealing with the issue of elections as it is the sole mandate of the executive.

President Mugabe however said a court ruling should be respected as the executive cannot continue violating the constitutional rights of the electorate by denying them a chance to choose their representatives in parliament.

"If there is a case taken to court, a problem, we have defaulted and to stand up and say the court cannot pass judgment on the fact we have defaulted in the past and that we must not default again and for us not to default we must have an election. They (courts) were reasonable enough to give us time to prepare," added Mugabe.

The President noted that the inclusive government has outlived its usefulness and elections must be held to allow elected people to take over office.

Mugabe criticised those who are trying to delay the election, saying the MDC-T wants to maintain the inclusive government which was meant to last for only 18 months as they are now enjoying being in power.

He said his party, Zanu-PF is more than ready for the crucial polls and Zimbabwe will fund the polls though it will accept the assistance from SADC.