Mugabe Is Sworn In After Discredited Vote

HARARE, Zimbabwe (AP) -- President Robert Mugabe was sworn in for a sixth term Sunday, just hours after electoral officials said he had overwhelmingly won a discredited runoff. His main rival dismissed the inauguration as ''an exercise in self-delusion.''Mugabe promised talks with the opposition, perhaps mindful that African leaders will pressure him to negotiate at a summit he was to attend Monday in Egypt.As dignitaries watched under a red-carpeted tent at the State House complex, Mugabe held a Bible and stood before a red-robed, white-wigged judge to swear to uphold his nation's laws ''so help me God.'' He then sat amid cheering to sign documents.''The inauguration is meaningless,'' Morgan Tsvangirai, leader of the opposition Movement for Democratic Change, told Associated Press Television News. ''The world has said so, Zimbabwe has said so. So it's an exercise in self-delusion.''Tsvangirai said he believed members of Mugabe's ZANU-PF party were ready for talks.''I think that the reality has dawned on all the elites in ZANU-PF,'' Tsvangirai said. ''Without negotiating with the MDC this is a dead-end.''The 84-year-old Mugabe, Zimbabwe's leader since independence from Britain in 1980, was expected to depart almost immediately for an African Union summit that opens Monday in Egypt.In a speech following his swearing-in, Mugabe said: ''Sooner or later, as diverse political parties, we shall start serious talks.'' He also had promised talks on the eve of the vote.African and other world leaders have condemned Friday's election, in which Mugabe was the only candidate. Human rights groups said opposition supporters were the targets of brutal state-sponsored violence during the campaign, leaving more than 80 dead and forcing some 200,000 to flee their homes.Residents said they were forced to vote by threats of violence or arson from Mugabe supporters who searched for anyone without an ink-stained finger -- the telltale sign that they had cast a ballot.Tsvangirai had withdrawn from the race because of the violence, though his name remained on the ballot and his supporters may have spoiled their ballots rather than vote for Mugabe. SOURCE:NYT.COM