U.N. 'regrets' Zimbabwe election

NEW YORK, June 28 (UPI) -- Even as votes were being counted Saturday in Zimbabwe, the U.N. Security Council said it deeply regretted the decision to proceed with elections there.

The runoff vote proceeded Friday without the main opposition candidate, Morgan Tvsangirai, who pulled out the contest in the face of escalating pre-election violence against his supporters. Tsvangirai and his Movement for Democratic Change party blamed incumbent President Robert Mugabe and his supporters for orchestrating a campaign of intimidation and called for a postponement of the vote.

Mugabe's decision to go ahead with the election brought condemnation from the U.N. Security Council Friday, the BBC reported.

In a statement signed by the 15 members of the Security Council, all "agreed that the conditions for free and fair elections did not exist (in Zimbabwe) and it was a matter of deep regret that elections went ahead in these circumstances." British Prime Minister Gordon Brown registered his disapproval of the situation by calling it "a new low" for Mugabe," the BBC reported.

The Security Council's statement stopped short of calling the election illegitimate. But U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said Friday the council would meet again to determine "next steps."