Violence, laws prevent fair vote in Zimbabwe [Excerpt] Recent amendments to the election law forbid civic and religious organizations from monitoring the poll and from running voter education campaigns.
Military officers have been appointed to the election directorate, and only civil servants -- dependent on government jobs -- will be allowed to monitor the vote.
Seals will no longer be placed around the whole ballot box when it is moved to the counting station, but only around the opening. Since the new law allows the ballots to be transported in the absence of party representatives, many fear the boxes can be disassembled in transit.
"That gives the ruling party ample opportunity to stuff the ballot box. If that is not the case, why introduce such a law anyway?" asked Eliphas Mukonoweshuro, a professor at the University of Zimbabwe. [End Excerpt]
The opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) and foreign critics led by former colonial power Britain and the United States, accuse President Robert Mugabe, 78, of trying to rig the vote to beat the biggest challenge to his 22-year rule.
At a briefing for foreign election observers and the media the Electoral Supervisory Commission (ESC) gave out scant information. It could not say how many ballot papers had been printed, the exact location of 4,548 polling stations or when voters lists would be made public.
Nor could ESC chairman Sobuza Gula-Ndebele, a retired army colonel, and his officials say why only 23 local observers had been accredited out of 12,000 nominees.
"I have a problem. I don't think as the supervisor of an election that is only a couple of days away you can tell people 'I don't know,"' said observer Martha Sayed of Botswana's Independent Electoral Commission.[End Excerpt]