UN Human rights chief visits Zimbabwe

The government of Zimbabwe has confirmed an election will be held before the end of the year, but no date has been set.

The party of long-time President Robert Mugabe, the ZANU-PF, insists they've been calling for a vote despite the lack of a new constitution, while the opposition party, the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC), has been urging a greater focus on democratic reform first.

Zimbabwe's economy has suffered greatly in the past decade as President Mugabe instituted reforms to move ownership of key businesses from whites to blacks, but there has been recent signs of recovery.

In her first visit to Zimbabwe, the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay urged President Mugabe to support truly free and fair elections.

"He recounted to me the past history of Zimbabwe and attributed some of the current problems to the past,” she said after meeting Mugabe. “I commended the president for making a call that there should be no violence in the future elections and urged him to continue to make such calls. I also urged him to ensure that the future elections will be free and fair and free from violence."

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