(dpa) - Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe said a run-off in Saturday's presidential elections "won't be necessary" while recognizing it was a constitutional requirement if he fails to take more than 50 per cent of the vote, state media reported Sunday.
"We're (candidates) not used to boxing matches where we go from round one to round two. We just knock each other out. That's how we've done it in the past and that's how we'll do it this time," the 84-year-old leader was quoted by the Sunday Mail as saying.
Mugabe, however, recognized that the constitution calls for a run-off to be held within three weeks if no candidate wins an outright majority.
Voting is still ongoing after Saturday's combined presidential, assembly, senate and local elections, in which Mugabe faces a strong challenge from opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) leader Morgan Tsvangirai and former finance minister Simba Makoni in his bid for a sixth term as leader.
His boxing-match analogy was seen as ironic by some Zimbabweans given Tsvangirai's severe beating by police during a state crackdown on the opposition in March 2007.
