The head of the African Union's election observer mission to Zimbabwe warned on Friday that his organization would not recognize any government that came into power by a military coup. Former Sierra Leone president Ahmed Tejan Kabah told journalists the AU "will not accept violence before, during and after the elections."
The state-run Herald newspaper quoted Kabah as saying that since his arrival in the country on Wednesday he had noticed that Zimbabwe was calm and that there was fair coverage of political parties by state-controlled media. Kabah also said that he believed the elections on Saturday would be "transparent," the Herald reported.
The observer mission sent by the Southern African Development Community has also praised election preparations, ruling out a flawed election contrary to claims by the opposition and independent local observers that the playing field is not level.
Political analyst Farai Maguwu told reporter Carole Gombakomba of VOA's Studio 7 for Zimbabwe that he takes exception to the AU’s endorsement of the elections when the country's military is making a show of force in the streets of major cities.
Elsewhere, the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission conceded that that it was running the elections on the basis of a flawed voters roll, as Sylvia Manika reported.
The high court dismissed a request by the Tsvangirai opposition formation that it reverse an order by President Mugabe allowing police in polling stations contrary to language to the country's Electoral Act, which was amended in January.
The high court threw out two other MDC cases yesterday, one asking it to compel the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission to produce an electronic version of the voters roll and for the opposition to have access to information about postal votes.