(CNSNews.com) - The U.S. State Department is among those expressing concern that Saturday's election in Zimbabwe will not be free or fair. "Independent organizations report extensive pre-election irregularities," State Department spokesman Sean McCormack said on Tuesday.

He said the problems include inaccurate voter rolls; violence and intimidation of competing political parties; overproduction of postal ballots and a lack of independent observers for counting those postal ballots; inadequate polling stations in urban areas; and bias against the opposition in the government-controlled media.

"Despite these obstacles, we encourage all Zimbabweans to exercise their democratic right to vote in a peaceful and orderly manner," McCormack said. He urged the government of Zimbabwe to "take concrete actions" to address the electoral problems, but few people expect that to happen.

Voters on Saturday will cast ballots for president, members of parliament, senators and local officials.

Despite years of oppressive rule that has left his county in economic shambles, Zimbabwe's President Robert Mugabe is expected to be re-elected.

(As Cybercast News Service reported last week, Zimbabwe's security chiefs, including the heads of the army and police, have threatened not to recognize the outcome of the March 29 elections if President Robert Mugabe is defeated.)

In a recent study entitled "A Decade of Suffering in Zimbabwe," the libertarian Cato Institute said Mugabe -- in his quest to secure power for himself -- has ignored his country's significant problems, which include dropping life-expectancy rates, a rapidly spreading AIDS/HIV epidemic, starvation, and rampant inflation.

"Robert Mugabe and his cronies are chiefly responsible for an economic meltdown that has turned one of Africa's most prosperous countries," says the report written by Zimbabwe Parliament member David Coltart.

Marian L. Tupy, a policy analyst at the Cato Institute's Center for Global Liberty and Prosperity told Cybercast News Service that despite Mugabe's clear corruption and strong opposition from Zimbabwe's people, he is expected to win re-election.

"There is no doubt in my mind that if Zimbabwe had fair and free elections that both Mugabe and his party would lose the elections," said Tupy. "But the opposition cannot prevail at the polls, which are tightly controlled by Mugabe through fraud and outright theft of votes. I have no doubt that after this weekend Mugabe will be declared the 'winner.'"

\cbpat2 Experts doubt that Zimbabwe's March 29 election will be fair, agreed Stephanie Hanson of the Council on Foreign Relations. "But Zimbabwe's upcoming presidential election looks more competitive than any in recent history."

The 84-year-old Mugabe is running for his sixth term as Zimbabwe's president. He's been in power since Zimbabwe gained independence from Britain in 1980. This year, his two main challengers for the presidency, Simba Makoni and Morgan Tsvangirai, have made the decimated economy the centerpiece of their campaigns.

A public opinion survey conducted last week by the Mass Public Opinion Institute, a non-governmental research organization based in Zimbabwe, shows that Mugabe may be losing his grip on power.

According to the survey, Zimbabwe's chief rival -- Morgan Tsvangirai, the leader of the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) Party -- is leading with 28 percent of the vote compared with Mugabe's 20 percent. Makoni had 9 percent support. Around 23 percent of voters would not reveal their presidential preference, apparently fearing retaliation.

The Cato study found that Mugabe's regime, which partially supported by foreign aid, has created immense suffering among Zimbabwe's people and ruined a once-prosperous economy.

"At the root of Zimbabwe's problems is corrupt political elite that has behaved with utter impunity for some two decades," said Coltart. "These elite are determined to hang on to power no matter what the consequences."

Coltart noted in his report that Mugabe has been shoring up the military to maintain his own grip on power, rather than dealing with his country's many problems.

For example, Colbert noted, Mugabe reportedly paid $200 million to the Chinese for 12 fighter jets: \ldblquote An announcement that the government would import new military aircraft from China underscored the government priorities, even though the country is not at war and is surrounded by friendly states," said Colbert.

"Zimbabwe is a very, very, poor country," said Tupy. "There is no doubt the money could be spent in better ways."

According to data compiled by Cybercast News Service, the cost of Mugabe's jets amounts to five percent of his country's entire Gross Domestic Product for fiscal year 2006. Zimbabwe's total 2006 defense budget was nearly 18 percent of the country's total GDP. (The statistic come from The Military Balance, a publication of the International Institute for Strategic Balances.)

The United States, by comparison, spent only four percent of its GDP in FY 2006 on its defense budget.

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