The Zimbabwe Electoral Commission has set June 27 as the date for the presidential election run-off. Opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai’s has decided to take part. Following the announcement, he told a news conference in Pretoria, South Africa that his supporters would have felt betrayed if he had decided not to take part. In agreeing to participate the MDC wants to demonstrate that it clearly has a majority support.

Speaking with VOA’s Akwei Thompson, MDC’s spokesman, Nelson Chamisa said his party was ready and so were the people. He said, however, ZANU-PF was not ready for the election, “that is why they have delayed the election by almost three months.” We would have wanted the elections to have been held as of yesterday so that we put this chapter behind us, and we move forward with the agenda of reconstructing our country,” he said.

On the issue of free and fair elections, Chamisa said the party does not want the elections to be held in “darkness”.

“We want this election to have the endorsement of the international community, we want to make sure that there’s international media in the country,” as well as the cessation of hostilities, politically motivated murders and violence, Chamisa said.