President Robert Mugabe said his government will not invite "imperialist" nations to monitor Zimbabwe's parliamentary elections scheduled for March, state media reported today.
Mr Mugabe has been accused by the opposition and mostly Western countries of rigging his re-election in 2002 and ZANU-PF's equally controversial victory in parliamentary polls four years ago.
The veteran leader, in power since independence from Britain in 1980, charged "imperialist" countries were plotting to indirectly recolonise nations like Zimbabwe under the veil of observing elections.
"We will invite our neighbours. Former imperialist countries are liars, completely dishonest. There is a Third World. So why should we be judged by the First World," Mr Mugabe was quoted in the state-owned Herald newspaper.
Mr Mugabe has accused former colonial ruler Britain of meddling in the country's internal affairs and working with the opposition to overthrow his government because of his controversial seizure of white-owned farms for the resettlement of landless blacks. Mr Mugabe was speaking to foreign delegates attending an ongoing ZANU-PF congress in Harare.
Mr Mugabe is expected to purge more officials from his ruling ZANU-PF movement today as the party gears itself for elections.
Mr Mugabe and his ZANU-PF politburo inner cabinet have already suspended six party provincial chairmen and the leader of the liberation war veterans association accused of trying to scuttle the election of a woman backed by Mr Mugabe as second party vice president - a post seen as a stepping stone to the top job.
Mr Mugabe also severely reprimanded controversial information minister Mr Jonathan Moyo for organising a meeting of the seven suspended officials, and several ministers who have not been punished.