HARARE, Feb. 13 (Xinhuanet) -- The Zimbabwean government said on Sunday that countries from the European Union will not be invited to monitor the parliamentary election scheduled for next month.

    A spokesperson for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Pavelyn Musaka, said that the government had excluded European countries such as Britain, Denmark, Sweden, Germany, the Netherlands and Finland from observing the poll set for March 31.

    He said the process of sending out invitations to governments mainly in the southern African region, the African continent and others is underway.

    Justice, Legal and Parliamentary Affairs Minister Patrick Chinamasa, who is responsible for sending out invitations to localgroups, said that there would be a limited number of local observers that would take part this year.

    "We have to limit the number of local observers because we do not want a situation where, say, 100 people will come and disturb the voting process at polling stations on the pretext of observingelections," Chinamasa said.

    The country will hold its fifth parliamentary elections under the recently introduced Zimbabwe Electoral Commission (ZEC), which is responsible for preparing and conducting elections and referendums.

    Prior to the setting up of the ZEC, the Registrar General and the Elections Directorate used to conduct elections and the referendums while ESC supervised, accredited election observers and appointed monitors.

    The election would be held in line with Southern Africa Development Community (SADC) electoral principles and guidelines that SADC heads of state adopted in Mauritius last year.

    Some of the guidelines that had been earmarked for implementation include the requirement to hold elections over one day, the use of transparent ballot boxes and counting of ballots at polling stations.

    The guidelines also allow political parties equal access to the public media, establishment of independent electoral bodies to manage elections, provision of security to all contesting political parties and full participation of all citizens in the electoral process. Enditem