Zimbabwe -- Mugabe bans western election observers

Telegraph (UK) ^ | June 28, 2004 | David Blair, Africa Correspondent

[Clive]

Zimbabwe's opposition accused President Robert Mugabe of trying to "fool" the world yesterday when he banned election observers from any western country from covering parliamentary polls due next year.

Coming amid food shortages and economic collapse, the contest represents a crucial hurdle for Mr Mugabe. He has already begun a campaign to guarantee victory and hand his African allies enough reason to give the election a clean bill of health.

Mr Mugabe, 80, told a summit of developing countries in Mozambique that only observers from "our friends in the Third World" would be allowed to monitor the polls. "We will not allow the erstwhile imperialists to judge our elections," he said.

His regime agreed to adopt some international standards designed to ensure a fair contest. Transparent ballot boxes will be used as a safeguard against "stuffing". Counting will happen at polling stations instead of a single location and voting will be on a single day rather than over a weekend.

But Zimbabwe's opposition, the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC), believes these reforms are wholly inadequate. It suspects that Mr Mugabe's real aim is to give South Africa, his crucial ally, enough grounds to declare the election free and fair.

"They are trying to pull the wool over the eyes of southern African countries," said Tendai Biti, the MDC's economic affairs secretary. "No one should be excited by measures that are meant to fool the international community. You cannot achieve a free and fair election on the basis of these measures."

Militias from Mr Mugabe's Zanu-PF party have for four years conducted a reign of terror against his opponents. Draconian laws ban criticism of the president and force the opposition to seek police permission for any gathering.

Morgan Tsvangirai, the MDC leader, is awaiting the verdict of his trial on charges of treason, which carries the death penalty.

All radio and television channels are conduits for official propaganda and the Daily News, the only independent daily, was shut down last year. The BBC and most foreign news organisations are banned from Zimbabwe.

Mr Biti said this amounted to a "state of emergency by the back door" and rendered normal political campaigning impossible. "The government has done nothing to address basic law and order issues such as the violence we have seen all over the country."

The MDC is unable to function effectively and the party is likely to lose most of its 52 seats in parliament when the election is held next March. It recently lost two by-elections in former strongholds.

Election observers from South Africa gave a favourable verdict on Mr Mugabe's victory in the presidential polls of 2002. The president hopes they will do the same for the coming parliamentary contest - while any observers likely to disagree will be banned.

[Clive]

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[Dante3]

bttt

[headsonpikes]

If Zim follows the natural course of practical socialism, then Zimbabweans won't need election observers, just corpse counters to quantify the genocide.

[swampfox98]

Does this mean Jimmy Carter can't go and play his part of useful idiot?