No election postponement, says govt

The government of Zimbabwe has rejected a call by the opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) to postpone parliamentary polls scheduled for March 2005. Foreign Affairs Minister Stan Mudenge reportedly told diplomats accredited to Harare that postponing the elections would be illegal, and said the opposition had not officially approached the Zimbabwean authorities to seek a postponement of the elections. Meanwhile, ruling ZANU-PF party spokesman Nathan Shamuyarira said postal ballots would not be used in March, as this would give the opposition an advantage. "We are not allowed to visit Britain or EU countries because of travel sanctions slapped on ZANU-PF leaders and, as a result, we cannot go and campaign for votes in the diaspora. But the opposition MDC leadership is allowed to travel and meet their supporters, and we feel this is giving the opposition an advantage and this would make the political playing field uneven," Shamuyarira said. Under Zimbabwean electoral laws, only serving diplomatic staff and members of the armed forces stationed outside the country are allowed postal votes. MDC spokesman Paul Themba Nyathi said the government's refusal to postpone elections was a sign that it was afraid of free and fair elections. "The ZANU-PF government is terrified of free elections and that is why they do not want critical observers to come and witness the elections. They are rushing to hold elections without implementing the [Southern African Development Community election] guidelines because the rigging mechanism is already in place," he alleged. Addressing the ruling ZANU-PF central committee meeting in Harare on Friday, President Robert Mugabe said western countries and the MDC wanted to treat the SADC guidelines governing democratic elections as an aid package "which we receive with conditionalities". MDC president Morgan Tsvangirai and the party's secretary general, Welshman Ncube, have argued that there was not enough time to implement the SADC protocol on elections before March next year. Mugabe has said only "authentic" Africans would observe the Zimbabwean elections.