HARASSMENT OF voters is becoming so commonplace as potentially to distort the outcome of the forthcoming run-off between President Robert Mugabe and opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai, according to Alouis Chaumba from Zimbabwe's Catholic Justice and Peace Commission, writes Ellen Teague.

To combat any electoral malpractice, the Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr Rowan Williams, and the Archbishop of Cape Town, Thabo Makgoba, last week appealed to the United Nations to oversee Zimbabwe's presidential election re-run on 27 June, following Mr Tsvangirai's failure to be declared the outright winner of the first round.

The Anglican Bishop of Harare, Sebastian Bakare, told The Tablet on Monday that he is denied access to Harare's Anglican cathedral and all Anglican churches in the capital are locked.