HARARE - A SADC Parliamentary Forum (SPF) committee which arrived in the country on Sunday says it will dispatch more observers for Zimbabwe’s watershed general election set for later this year.

SPF secretary-general Esau Chiviya told the Daily News that they were ready to deploy more observers as they had realised that 40 members sent for the referendum were inadequate.

“We came here at the invitation of Zimbabwe Election Commission (Zec) for the referendum but we will be here three weeks earlier for the harmonised elections,” said Chiviya.

Speaking at a familiarisation workshop for the team, Chiviya said the general election would require more observers.

SPF, which groups MPs from the region, was deployed by mother body Sadc as an observer team for the referendum scheduled for Saturday.

The mission comprises MPs from Botswana, Democratic Republic of Congo, Lesotho, Malawi, Mozambique, Namibia, South Africa, Swaziland, Tanzania, Zambia and Zimbabwe.

According to officials, the mission will be guided by regional and international instruments guiding the conduct of credible polls.