 We are expecting between 300 and 400 election observers to cover the entire country, Colonel Thanki Mothae, director of the the Southern African Development Community (SADC) secretariat of the organ on politics, defence and security, told Zimbabwe’s state-run Herald newspaper.
 It was felt that we need more observers so we had to increase from the 163 we had in March. Mothae told the newspaper that observers from the 14-nation bloc would start arriving in Harare this weekend with the bulk arriving next week.
 Zimbabweans go to the polls on June 27 for a run-off vote between veteran President Robert Mugabe and Morgan Tsvangirai of the opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) after they fought an inconclusive first round in March.
 The March 29 elections also saw Mugabe’s ruling party lose its traditional parliamentary majority for the first time since independence 28 years ago.
 The aftermath of the elections has been marred by a wave of politically-motivated violence, mostly in rural areas, with the MDC claiming at least 54 of its supporters have been killed and 25,000 displaced in retributive attacks by ruling party militias.
 South African President Thabo Mbeki, the region’s chief mediator on Zimbabwe, said in a television interview last week that SADC was increasing the number of observers so that they can cover all parts of Zimbabwe adding that they need to go in as early as possible. Tsvangirai, who claimed he won the presidential election in March without the need for a run-off, agreed to participate in the run-off on condition that regional and international observers were allowed in without restrictions.
 A SADC mission which oversaw the first round of voting was heavily criticised by the opposition after it gave the vote a largely clean bill of health before any of the results had been announced.
Post published in: News