ZIMBABWE:President Robert Mugabe's decision to relax some security and media laws ahead of next year's general election in Zimbabwe has been dismissed by his opponents as a cynical public relations exercise.
The 83-year-old president, who is seeking to extend his 27-year rule in an election next March, has announced plans to allow certain journalists cover the elections, and to lift a ban on staging political rallies.
But prominent pro-democracy campaigner Elinor Sisulu said the measures were "too little too late".
"This is the very same strategy used by Mugabe in the last elections. The laws were relaxed six weeks before the poll - just when the observers were coming in.
"Even if the laws are relaxed immediately, and there is no indication of that just yet, it doesn't give enough time for political organisations to campaign in a country like Zimbabwe."
The leading opposition party, the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC), was also lukewarm about the announcement, saying it would have preferred a complete scrapping of draconian laws on freedom of expression and assembly.
Nonetheless, the party declined to openly criticise the move, saying it was committed to a process of dialogue with the ruling Zanu-PF party.
Ms Sisulu said the MDC had been "completely outmanoeuvred" in part due to what she depicted as the dubious role played by regional governments under the Southern African Development Community.
The Zimbabwean government indicated that it was thanks to the mediation efforts of South African president Thabo Mbeki that it agreed to amend political and media controls.
Under the changes, an appeals mechanism would be set up for political parties whose rallies had been banned. Foreign journalists will have temporary access under certain conditions.
Ms Sisulu said a critical issue was whether international and regional observers would be allowed to monitor the poll.
"The people of Zimbabwe have been battered and beaten. But they would take hope - and come out to vote - if they thought there were proper observers there."
