Zimbabwe says civil servants to monitor polls

Zimbabwe says civil servants to monitor polls

CHINAMASA

• Chamisa released without charge

• Chamisa arrested in fresh crackdown

• Opposition MP Khupe arrested, scores others held

• Mugabe puts military in centre of election

• Zim opposition demands voters' roll review

• MDC, Zanu (Ndonga) 'not fooled' by TV, radio coverage

• MDC to make poll decision in January

• MDC cries foul as constituencies erased

• MDC: 'Delimitation an exercise in deception'

• Delimitation commission erases MDC constituencies

• Mugabe swears in delimitation commission

• Zimbabwe voters' roll 'inflated by a million'

• Mugabe bars Western observers from polls

• Tsvangirai warns of Zimbabwe 'inferno'

• Call off boycott, Mogae urges MDC

• Two Zanu PF MPs lose seats

• Sparks fly over voters' roll tampering

• Zanu PF tests popularity with membership cards

• Majority Zimbabweans want MDC to stand

• Zimbabwe bars election observers

• 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

• 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 Agencies

UPCOMING parliamentary elections in Zimbabwe will be monitored by civil servants rather than by independent organisations, a cabinet minister said on Thursday.

The state-controlled daily Herald quoted justice minister Patrick Chinamasa as saying that civil servants would monitor the March polls since the government could discipline them "if they do any monkey business".

President Robert Mugabe has not yet set a date for the elections, but there is already widespread concern over the ballot after a series of laws were passed putting government in charge of the election process and appointing soldiers, police, prison wardens and other government staff to key positions.

High court judge George Chiweshe, a former fighter in Mugabe's pre-independence army, has been appointed the head of the new Zimbabwe election commission.

Mugabe has declared no observers from Western countries will be permitted to observe the vote.

"We will judge ourselves," he said.

Zimbabwe's new election laws now clash with guidelines for democratic elections set by the Southern African Development Community, the regional 13-nation economic and political bloc, which Mugabe signed up to in September.

Four officials from the opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) party have been arrested in three days.

The party accuses Mugabe and his supporters of intensifying an offensive against the MDC as the elections draw near - Sapa-dpa
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