Free and fair Zimbabwe election ‘highly unlikely’

FIVE years of violence, intimidation, voting irregularities and restrictive legislation have slanted Zimbabwe’s electoral playing field in favour of President Robert Mugabe, Human Rights Watch said in a report issued yesterday.

The New York-based group is the latest of numerous local and international rights organisations to sound the alarm about the March 31 general election, seen as a test of Mugabe’s legitimacy after nearly 25 years at the helm of the troubled southern African country.

Researcher Tiseke Kasambala urged governments of the Southern African Development Community (SADC) - among the few allowed to observe Zimbabwe’s elections - not to judge whether the poll is free and fair based on what they have seen over the past week alone.