Upcoming parliamentary elections in Zimbabwe will be monitored by civil servants rather than by independent organizations, a cabinet minister said Thursday. The daily Herald quoted justice minister Patrick Chinamasa as saying that civil servants would monitor the March polls since the government could discipline them "if they do any monkey business". President Robert Mugabe has not yet set a date for the elections, but there is already widespread concern over the ballot after a series of laws were passed putting government in charge of the election process and appointing soldiers, police, prison wardens and other government staff to key positions. High court judge George Chiweshe, a former guerrilla in Mugabe's pre-independence army, has been appointed the head of the new Zimbabwe Election Commission. Mugabe has declared no observers from Western countries will be permitted to observe the vote. "We will judge ourselves," he said. Zimbabwe's new election laws now clash with guidelines for democratic elections set by the Southern African Development Community, the regional 13-nation economic and political bloc, which Mugabe signed up to in September.
