Mugabe overrules Supreme Court

Mugabe at an election rally

HARARE, Zimbabwe -- President Robert Mugabe is on the campaign trail again after overriding his Supreme Court over controversial election rules.

The Zimbabwean ruler used presidential powers to reinstate election regulations which the Supreme Court declared illegal last week and which critics say favour his re-election bid.

The controversial General Laws Amendments Act gives state-appointed election officers powers to bar independent vote monitors, to introduce strict identity requirements for voters and ban private organisations from voter education.

"This is a clear demonstration that Mugabe is determined to hang on to power by all means, but mostly foul," political analyst Masipula Sithole told Reuters.

Zimbabwe's Electoral Supervisory Commission (ESC), whose members are Mugabe appointees, was due to to brief observers and the media on Wednesday on just how the vote will be run.

There has been particular concern about the number and location of polling stations.

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Any imbalance in favour of rural stations against those in the major cities is said to favour Mugabe against his main opponent Morgan Tsvangirai of the Movement for Democratic Change.

The role of independent observers has also turned into a key issue, with many intended participants complaining of restrictions.

A 23-strong South Africa non-governmental observer team was refused accreditation on Tuesday and told to leave the country.

The European Union last month pulled out its observer team after Harare refused to accredit its leader. The EU and the United States imposed selective sanctions against Mugabe and his inner circle in protest.

The decree reinstating the new election rules was attacked by Adrian de Bourbon, an attorney for the opposition MDC, as illegal and unconstitutional.

"It is a total disgrace. One of the candidates has changed the rules. That is breaking the law and is clearly designed to help one candidate against the other," he told the Associated Press.

The opposition planned to file an urgent appeal against the decree to the Supreme Court on Wednesday "but it's a moot point that in the time left we'll get anywhere", de Bourbon said.

The vote on Saturday and Sunday is set to be Zimbabwe's closest since Mugabe came to power when the nation became independent from Britain in 1980.

Mugabe, 78, has accused his opponents of being stooges of the former colonial power and a vehicle for a return to white rule.

The U.S. State Department this week attacked Mugabe's ZANU-PF government for human rights abuses, including extrajudicial killings

and security-force involvement in acts of political violence.

Former U.S. president Jimmy Carter said on Tuesday the poll was already seriously flawed but urged Zimbabweans to vote.

His pro-democracy Carter Center said it was "deeply concerned about continued reports of political violence, internal displacement of the population, the activities of armed militias unchecked by the government and police action that have violated basic political rights and freedoms."

Some 5.6 million Zimbabweans will go to the polls at a time of severe food shortages caused by drought and the state-sanctioned invasions of white-owned farms which have slashed maize output.

The United Nations has warned half a million Zimbabweans face food shortages.