Maputo/Harare - A senior Southern African Development Community official on Thursday placed the onus for ensuring a free and fair presidential election run-off in Zimbabwe on the country's maligned state-controlled election body.

Tomaz Salomao, executive secretary of the 14-nation southern African grouping, said it was up to the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission (ZEC) to ensure the run-off between President Robert Mugabe and opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai was free and fair.

"If there were free and fair elections on March 29, there's a good chance that the run-off will also be free and fair," Salamao said in an interview in Mozambique's capital, Maputo, where he is attending the annual meeting of the African Development Bank.

SADC would however be monitoring the situation closely, he said. The regional body is expected to boost the number of its election observers to 200 from 120 for the first round of voting on March 29.

Salamao's remarks flew in the face of Tsvangirai's calls for SADC to take responsibility for ensuring the run-off was free and fair. The MDC leader has accused ZEC of being biased in favour of Mugabe over its month-plus delay in announcing the results of the first round.

Mugabe's Zanu-PF party has, for its part, accused ZEC officials of rigging in favour of Tsvangirai.

Eighty-four-year-old Mugabe, who is seeking a sixth term as leader, placed second in the March election to Tsvangirai but the MDC leader failed to achieve the
50-per-cent-plus required for an outright win.

No date has been announced yet for the run-off.

The government on Wednesday angered the MDC by extending the period within which the vote be held to 90 days from the announcement of the results on May 2.

Under Zimbabwe's election laws a run-off should be held within three weeks of the results, that is to say by May 23. The MDC, which had been demanding that the vote take place by that date, blasted the postponement was "illegal."

The government announced the delay in a special government gazette, which was being printed yesterday but has yet to be made public. )dpa)