Zimbabwe's government has warned that it will deport foreign election observers considered to be interfering in the country's electoral process.
Millions of voters will head to the polls on August 23 to elect a president, members of parliament and local councilors amid a staggering economy and accusations of a crackdown on the opposition.
Election observers should not be "openly hobnobbing with some presidential candidates", according to George Charamba, the deputy chief secretary to the president.
He claimed that some observers had addressed rallies held by the opposition Citizen's Coalition for Change (CCC) party.
'Kick them out'
"Government will not hesitate to kick them out... they are skating on very thin ice," he is quoted as saying by the state-controlled Herald website.
Incumbent Emmerson Mnangagwa, from the governing ZANU-PF party, is seeking a second and last term after taking over from long-time president Robert Mugabe in 2017.
He told a rally on Wednesday that people who vote for his party — which has been in power for 43 years — would go to heaven.
The buildup to the election has seen an opposition party supporter killed, allegedly at the hands of ruling party activists, in the first such recorded case.
