HARARE (Sapa-AFP) - More than 100 observers from the Southern African Development Community began deploying across Zimbabwe on Thursday ahead of a June 27 run-off presidential election, the 14-nation regional bloc said.
"We are now ready for deployment. Today is our D-day. Today we are now going out," Thanki Mothae, director of SADC's secretariat on politics, defence and security, told reporters in Harare.
Mothae said 120 observers were fanning out across Zimbabwe in the first wave of deployments but more than 400 should be in place by polling day when opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai is hoping to oust President Robert Mugabe.
"We had earlier anticipated that we would have 300 observers or so but based on the responses from member countries we will have more than 400 by polling day," said Mothae.
Although the Zimbabwe government has banned Western countries from monitoring the run-off, observer missions from the African Union and the Pan-African Parliament are also due to deploy before election day.
SADC was heavily criticised by the opposition Movement for
Democratic Change (MDC) after a mission gave the first round of voting on March 29 a largely clean bill of health even before any of the results had been announced.
In a follow-up report, SADC expressed its concern over mounting levels of violence but apportioned the blame to all parties.
Mothae said it was important that the latest SADC mission was even-handed in its approach.
"Let's be very careful on the statements we are going to make out there. We are not here to take sides but to help the people of Zimbabwe," he said.
"Whatever we do must be in line with the laws of the country," he added.
In a speech to lawmakers on Wednesday, South African President Thabo Mbeki, SADC's chief mediator between Zimbabwe's governing ZANU-PF party and the opposition MDC, said levels of violence were a cause for "serious concern".
According to the MDC, more than 60 of its supporters have been killed by ZANU-PF militias since the first round of voting although Mugabe has in turn accused the opposition of "terrorising" his followers.
