From Associated Press, 10 January: Zim election observers report problems

Angus Shaw

Harare - Impoverished Zimbabwean farmers have to show they are loyal members of the ruling party if they want free equipment that the government is offering, and opposition supporters have been threatened with dogs, independent democracy monitors said on Thursday. Thursday's report by the Zimbabwe Election Support Network three months ahead of planned national elections also outlined problems with voter education and registration. The report underlined concerns by the main opposition party about the fairness of the poll. There was no immediate response from the government, which has insisted that the elections will be open and democratic. Instead, a government newspaper equated election monitors with United States spies. The support network, in its latest election bulletin, said it deployed 120 observers throughout the country and based its findings on information from members of the public attending its community workshops. Observers in the Masvingo district in southern Zimbabwe reported that ox-drawn plows being distributed by the government were allocated only to people holding cards showing they were dues-paying members of the ruling Zanu PF party and who could chant three party slogans. The local governor said that donated plows would be taken away in districts won by opposition candidates, the network reported. In the central district of Gokwe, villagers were told they would not have to pay for plows as long as the ruling party won the March polls, the report said. The distributions were part of a Reserve Bank programme begun in November to get 120 000 plows, tens of thousands of donkey carts, seeds and other equipment into farmers' hands to revive crop production and end acute food shortages in the former regional breadbasket....