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Wednesday, December 12, 2001 - Web posted at 9:44:35 am GMT

HARARE, Dec 11 (Reuters) - Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe, facing his stiffest political challenge after two decades in power, said on Tuesday presidential elections would be held next March.

Mugabe told a visiting ministerial team from the 14-nation Southern African Development Community that his government would also invite international election observers.

But he said the European Union, which has pressed Zimbabwe to open the elections to foreign observers, may not be invited as a bloc.

"Elections will be held in March. The date is not yet fixed, but we will announce it in due course," Mugabe said. Under Zimbabwe's constitution, an election is due by April.

Mugabe, 77, who has led Zimbabwe since its independence from Britain in 1980, will square off against his main challenger, Morgan Tsvangirai, leader of the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC).

The MDC welcomed Mugabe's decision to invite some foreign observers but said it was outrageous for him to exclude the European Union as a bloc or not to issue an open invitation.

It added that foreign observers on their own would not guarantee a free and fair election, saying Mugabe had left a "biased" state body to run the elections, barred millions of Zimbabweans abroad from voting, shut the public media to the opposition and run a violent campaign for over a year.

"We are going into the elections because we are desperate to save a nation in a crisis, but the elections are already being rigged because there are no minimum standards to guarantee a free and fair process," MDC spokesman Learnmore Jongwe told Reuters.

The MDC almost defeated Mugabe's ruling ZANU-PF party in parliamentary elections last year that were marred by political violence, including the seizure of hundreds of white-owned farms and the deaths of 31 people.

Critics say Mugabe's militant supporters -- led by so-called veterans of the independence war -- have continued a violent campaign against the opposition ahead of next year's vote.

The opposition has also accused Mugabe of trying to tip the election in his favour by changing electoral laws to bar millions of Zimbabweans abroad from voting and demanding multiple proof of residency for urban voters.

Mugabe said observers from the SADC, the African Union, Economic Community for West African States and the Commonwealth would be invited to oversee the elections. Certain European nations may also be asked to send observers.

"But I will have some difficulties in inviting some white men here. I would rather invite the Asians and Caribbeans, but for the European Union, as a bloc, I doubt," he said.

Mugabe accused Britain, the United States and the EU of trying to impose illegal sanctions against his government because they had not put their case against Zimbabwe before the United Nations.

The Zimbabwean leader blamed London for sponsoring a U.S. bill passed by the House of Representatives that includes travel and financial sanctions against Mugabe and his associates.

"There is an attempt by Britain to demonise Zimbabwe as a rogue state," he said.

U.S. assistant secretary of state for African affairs Walter Kansteiner, in Harare, said: "Unfortunately today the rights and freedoms of Zimbabweans are being threatened and we have seen the nation's laws not being applied equally and fairly.

"This bill has a good many provisions in it that in fact bode very well for Zimbabwe. If the rule of law is restored and there is an electoral process that is free there are tremendous advantages waiting for Zimbabwe," said Kansteiner, citing international debt relief and financial funding.

Political analysts say Mugabe will find it hard to get re-elected next year in a country struggling with a battered economy blamed on government mismanagement and the land crisis.

Mugabe's ruling ZANU-PF party lost its third mayoral election to the MDC on Monday, this time in a small town close to Mugabe's rural home.

In a statement earlier on Tuesday, the MDC hailed its victory as "an indictment on the bloody electoral strategy that continues to be pursued by this out-going regime". Nampa-Reuters

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