In Zimbabwe, President Robert Mugabe is defying international pressure to cancel a run-off election marred by allegations of intimidation and the withdrawal of his opponent. Addressing a rally of supporters, Mugabe said he would proceed with Friday’s vote.

Zimbabwe President Robert Mugabe: “Raising a lot of noise for nothing, absolutely nothing. We will proceed with our elections. The verdict is our verdict. Other people can say what they want, but the elections are ours. We are a sovereign state, and that is it.”

Opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai won the first round of elections in March but withdrew from the run-off, saying he could not ask people to die voting for him. Tsvangirai has sought refuge in the Dutch embassy in Harare out of what he says is concern for his life. On Tuesday, Tsvangirai said he was prepared to emerge from hiding but renewed his call for the election’s delay.

Morgan Tsvangirai: “The government can do what it wants. There will be no election, because I, as the contender, will not be part of that election. The people will not be part of that election, because it is ridiculous to go in an election of that kind. It’s a one-man competition and therefore self-delusionary to think that one can go in a one-man race.”

Tsvangirai and his supporters say forces loyal to Mugabe have killed dozens and displaced thousands in a campaign of intimidation. Meanwhile, in the United States, Mugabe has come under criticism from the civil rights leader Reverend Jesse Jackson. Jackson and Mugabe have known each other for decades and worked together in the campaign against South African apartheid. Speaking on CNN, Jackson called Mugabe a “heresy to democracy.”

Rev. Jesse Jackson: “Well, he was a hero. Now, he’s kind of a heresy to democracy. That’s why the AU and others must step up their diplomatic initiatives, one, to get humanitarian relief back into Zimbabwe; two, to get a free press back in to talk to both leaders about some kind of reconciliation. The opposition withdrawal today is really a way of saying they cannot take the heat of violence. And so, the people there deserve an open, free and fair democracy. And we must somehow reconcile these two extremes. We cannot, as it were, leave Zimbabweans suffering in isolation.”