Tanzania has declared it is against President Robert Mugabe's style of governance, which apart from plunging the country into political crisis casts doubt on whether the run-off presidential election would be free and fair.
Speaking to journalists Foreign Affairs minister, Benard Membe said: "I want to tell you what I told fellow Southern African Development Community (SADC) members. We have got evidence indicating that elections will not be free and fair.
"Zimbabwe has been our great friend," he added, "and we have stood by them since the Lancaster agreement on land issues in 1980, but on governance issues, we have started to differ with the incumbent."
For the past two three decades, Zimbabwe has enjoyed a strong support which dates back to early 1980s when the late Julius Nyerere supported Mugabe and his ZANU-PF, during the struggle for liberation.
President Mugabe has vowed to "go to war" to prevent the Movement for Democratic Change taking power — as the race for the presidency enters its final phase.
With only 7 days to go to the run-off poll, Mugabe Thursday insisted he would not countenance defeat.
"We are prepared to fight for our country and to go to war for it," he told a rally of cheering supporters.
The belligerent 84-year-old comments come amid a week in which, the winner of the March 29 poll, Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) leader Morgan Tsvangirai, and his second-in-command, Tendai Biti, were arrested.
Speaking about the next week's run-off, minister Membe said there are credible evidence that there won't be fair and free election in Zimbabwe.
He said this was official stand of not only Tanzania but also group of southern African ministers who met this week to analyse the situation in Zimbabwe.
Tanzania is the current chairman of the African Union.
Membe said he and the foreign ministers of Swaziland and Angola would write to their presidents "so that they do something urgently so that we can save Zimbabwe."
SADC is sending 380 monitors to Zimbabwe for the vote, in which President Robert Mugabe faces the biggest challenge to his 28-year rule from Morgan Tsvangirai, leader of the opposition MDC.
Membe said their judgment on the conduct of the poll was based on evidence from 211 observers already inside the country.
Some of the observers saw two people shot dead in front of them on June 17, Membe said, without giving details.
A senior Western diplomat speaking in the region said the violence was spreading and had now taken on terror proportions.
"It's time really that we moved beyond calling this a campaign of violence. This is terror, plain and simple. This is a terror campaign that the joint operations command has launched weeks ago, it's too well organised, it's too well focused, it's too comprehensive, it's too political in its objectives to be anything else."
He added that militias backing Mugabe's ZANU-PF party were now active in the capital Harare.
"The atmosphere is violent. The violence is not abating; indeed it is spreading to areas where it has not historically spread before".
"As Tanzania, we have told the government of Zimbabwe to stop the violence. We have told our observers not to be threatened, that they do their work without fear. People of Zimbabwe are hurting and it pains us," Membe said--
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