Zimbabwe bars election observers

Zimbabwe bars election observers

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• MDC: 'Delimitation an exercise in deception'

• Mugabe swears in delimitation commission

• Sadc must show its teeth, says Tsvangirai

• Mugabe retains control over elections

• Police swoop on MDC offices

• Zanu PF takes Seke after MDC boycott

• Britain, SA pressure Mugabe over reforms

• MDC threatens poll boycott, withdraws Harare councillors

• 'Zimbabwe compliance the litmus test for SADC protocol on democratic polls' - Ncube

• Electoral reforms to be tested in by-election

• Nigeria angrily denies funding MDC

• Zim claims Nigeria funding opposition

• 'Mugabe's compliance the litmus test for SADC protocol on democratic polls'

By Angus Shaw

ZIMBABWE'S government will prohibit African observers from monitoring national parliamentary elections next year if they have close links with Western countries, an official said Friday.

President Robert Mugabe has already barred Western monitors from observing the March elections.

Foreign Minister Stan Mudenge told state radio on Friday that Zimbabwe has collected evidence of "maneuvers" by some countries and foreign organizations to include their Western allies in African monitoring groups.

He said African diplomats or monitors found cooperating with foreign governments will be barred from election observer groups.

The European Union, meanwhile, urged the government to implement the 14-nation Southern African Development Community's regional election standards to enable free and fair elections.

The government has announced some electoral reforms that the opposition Movement for Democratic Change has dismissed as cosmetic.

The opposition, citing intimidation and sweeping media and security laws that prevent fair campaigning, has said it will not run in the March election unless biased electoral laws are reformed.

In a statement Friday, the EU said it hoped the acquittal last week of opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai on treason charges "will help improve the political environment" ahead of the proposed polls.

Tsvangirai was cleared Oct. 15 on charges he plotted the assassination of Mugabe before presidential polls he contested in 2002.

Mugabe narrowly won that election, condemned by independent observers as flawed by political intimidation and vote rigging.

Tsvangirai still faces a second treason charge alleging that he called for mass street protests last year to topple Mugabe.

Western nations have been among the harshest critics of the policies of Mugabe's ruling party, including the often-violent seizures of thousands of white-owned farms that led to political violence, economic turmoil and worsening human rights violations.

The government has repeatedly accused Britain, the former colonial power, the United States and the EU of backing Mugabe's opponents to bring about regime change in the southern African country.

Political violence, blamed mostly on ruling party militants, has left more than 200 people dead and driven tens of thousands from their homes in the last five years.
AFP
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