President Robert Mugabe's government announced in Harare yesterday that it will ban independent poll monitors in the presidential elections early next year, a decision which will inflame Zimbabwe's already heated political climate.
The Justice Minister, Mr Patrick Chinamasa, told the official newspaper, the Herald, that he would introduce legislation to ban all independent election monitors. The government would provide its own.
For the parliamentary elections last year an independent body trained 24,000 monitors, drawn from a wide range of civic organisations.
Last week the EU warned Zimbabwe that it might impose sanctions if the government refused to admit international observers and failed to end the political violence which has killed hundreds.
This week the government has stepped up its efforts to silence the independent newspaper, Daily News, by alleging that its holding company is not properly registered.
The paper has already survived two bomb attacks, attacks on its reporters, and numerous court cases.
The Movement for Democratic Change denounced the government's actions as a tacit admission that it plans to cheat. Its general secretary, Mr Welshman Ncube, said: "We have a delinquent government of geriatrics who want to cling to power regardless of anything."