African observers allege fraud in Zimbabwe poll

HARARE (Reuters) - African observers charged on Saturday that they had discovered fraudulent voters rolls in the Zimbabwe election, listing more than 8,000 apparently non-existent people.

Marwick Khumalo, head of the Pan-African parliament's observer mission, said that in one Harare constituency, "It has been brought to our attention that out of the 24,678 registered voters more than 8,450 have been registered under block 081083...which is a deserted land with a few scattered wooden sheds."

In a letter to the Zimbabwean Electoral Commission (ZEC) seen by journalists, he said 70 more people were registered under another empty piece of land in the same area.

"Taking into account that there have been a lot of complaints from opposition political parties regarding the fact that ZEC has printed approximately 50 percent more ballot papers than the number of registered voters, the mission would like to request that ZEC clarifies these claims at the earliest of its convenience," he said.

ZEC officials were not immediately available for comment.

Tendai Biti, secretary-general of the main opposition MDC, said the party had also found "ghost voters" in an area of Harare.

Bitti earlier charged that President Robert Mugabe's ZANU-PF party planned systematic fraud to keep him in power, including multiple voting by his supporters.

(Reporting by Cris Chinaka; Editing by Barry Moody)