Zimbabwe's President Robert Mugabe has set March 31st as the date for the country's closely watched general parliamentary election, the official government gazette said today.
The election is expected to test how far Mugabe's government has yielded to international pressure for a fair vote as well as the popularity of the opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC).
The MDC claims Mr Mugabe's ruling ZANU-PF party robbed it of victory in the last parliamentary contest in June 2000, and in the presidential poll in 2002 through rigging and a violent campaign against the opposition.
Mr Mugabe, who turns 81 later this month and has been in power since independence from Britain in 1980, denies rigging the elections. He says he is being targeted for retribution by Western powers opposed to his policy of seizing white-owned farms to give to landless blacks.
Mr Mugabe's party has used its majority in the current parliament to pass a set of legal reforms intended to meet standards set by the 14-member regional grouping Southern African Development Community (SADC) for fair polls.
But the MDC charges the reforms - including the appointment of an independent electoral commission - do not go far enough. The MDC has threatened to boycott the March vote, arguing the prevailing electoral climate favour ZANU-PF.
Among other things, it accuses authorities of selectively applying security laws banning the holding of rallies without police clearance, saying this has hampered its election campaign.