Zimbabwe rejects African observers

25,000 opposition supporters attended Sunday's rally

Zimbabwe has barred 17 African observers from an EU team monitoring parliamentary elections this weekend, accusing them of secretly working for the United Kingdom.

The state-owned Herald newspaper reported that accreditation had been denied to 10 Kenyans and seven Nigerians "who had apparently been planted by Britain in an effort to subvert the ban by government on the former colonial power not to send observers".

The European Union team have denied the observers had any connection with the UK - which has been highly critical of President Robert Mugabe.

With campaigning in its final week, the main opposition party will have been buoyed by a large turn out for their final major campaign rally in the capital, Harare, on Sunday and by a recent opinion poll suggesting they could win a majority of seats in the new parliament.

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Five times as many supporters attended the opposition organised event than went to President Robert Mugabe's rally organised by the ruling party. He is now attending a G15 summit of developing nations in Cairo.

Observers

A spokeswoman for the European Commission in Brussels, Susannah Rosson, confirmed that the Kenyans had been refused accreditation, but expressed the hope that the problem could be resolved.

She said Britain had left it to the Commission to decide which observers to send in its absence.

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The idea behind sending Kenyans was that the observers would not be seen as a white colonialist mission.

The spokeswoman said seven Nigerians, who had also reportedly been refused accreditation, were not yet in the country.

President Mugabe's government - which has accused Britain of "interference" in the country - announced last month that it would not accept any British observers to the election.

The opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) has welcomed the arrival of hundreds of observers, from a variety of international organisations, as a way of reducing the level of politically-related violence in the run-up to polling.

About 30 people have died in recent violence - most of them MDC supporters.

Rallies

The 25,000 turnout for the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC), at the party's last major rally before elections next weekend was a big boost for its leader, Morgan Tsvangirai.

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Morgan Tsvangirai, MDC leader

By contrast, President Robert Mugabe's governing Zanu-PF could muster only 5,000 supporters for a rally in Harare on Saturday.

But the party atmosphere was punctured by clashes between supporters of Zanu-PF and the MDC, and since then, an attack has been reported on the house of another opposition leader, Margaret Dongo.

She told journalists in Harare that about 70 miitants of the Zanu-PF party arrived in a bus wielding sticks and something like a bottle of petrol,

Independent MP Margaret Dongo looks out from her vandalised window

They thoroughly wrecked the house and car and five people were seriously injured.

She said that police in the area were very reluctant to confront the attackers, some of whom she recognised as previous troublemakers.

When the attackers left, the house was litered with broken debris and personal possessions.

A survey by the independent Public Opinion Institute suggests the MDC would win 70 of the 120 parliamentary seats up for grabs.

A further 30 seats in the 150 seat parliament are appointed directly by the president.