Zimbabwe votes, but will anything change?

Zimbabwe's main opposition leader pledged on Wednesday to revamp the country's crumbling economy by introducing a new currency within six months if he wrests the presidency from Robert Mugabe in weekend elections.

"The economy is dead," Morgan Tsvangirai, leader of the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC), told thousands of drum-beating supporters in Murewa, 80km east of Harare, the capital. "My government will introduce a new currency as a way of improving and stabilising our economy."

A black-market trader said one American dollar was fetching Z$50-million on Wednesday. Inflation-battered Zimbabweans, battling shortages of basic goods and plummeting living standards, vote in presidential, parliamentary and local council polls on Saturday.

The presidential candidates are Tsvangirai, former finance minister Simba Makoni, who defied the ruling party to run as an independent, and Mugabe, who has held power since independence from Britain in 1980.

The nation's rural population has traditionally voted for Mugabe in previous elections, which critics, including Tsvangirai, say were flawed.

Zimbabwe has barred international observers from the European Union and the United States from Saturday's vote. Several international media organisations have also been barred from covering the elections.

Opposition legislator David Coltart was pessimistic the vote would be free and fair.

"There may still be surprises, though, because there is a lot of energy and excitement that we haven't seen since 2000," Coltart said in a telephone interview.

Addressing a crowd of more than 8 000 people in an area considered a ruling-party stronghold, Tsvangirai promised to curb mass unemployment and blamed Mugabe's anti-West rhetoric for the country's problems.

"He blames everything on [former British prime minister] Tony Blair. He has run out of ideas. People in Zimbabwe are more interested in basic things like food and jobs."

Jerry Mapfumo, a 39-year-old father of three, said he had walked 20km for the Tsvangirai rally because he couldn't afford transport costs. He also can't afford to send his children to school, he said.

"The only hope we have lies in that man," Mapfumo said, pointing at Tsvangirai as he sang and danced with the ululating crowd.

In its hey day, Zimbabwe was a net exporter of food. Its agriculture-based economy was disrupted when Mugabe launched his agrarian reforms in 2000, forcefully taking fertile land from the country's white minority for distribution to the country's black majority.

Tsvangirai said the land reform had only benefited politicians close to Mugabe.

Mugabe accuses British Prime Minister Gordon Brown and his predecessor, Blair, of pushing for "regime change" in Zimbabwe. Britain, the former colonial ruler, denies the charge, accusing Mugabe of mismanaging the economy, failing to fight corruption and stifling democracy.