Harare - Anglican supporters of Zimabwe's ruling Zanu-PF party were on Thursday accused of breaking church canonic law to block the election as the new Bishop of Mashonaland of a prominent white critic of Robert Mugabe's human rights record.
While independent of the Church of England, the denomination - with an estimated 40 000 active members - belongs to the worldwide "Lambeth Communion" and risks suspension or expulsion if political irregularities in its affairs are proven.
Supporters of the election of Timothy Neill, 47, vicar general of the diocese, want to nullify the alleged last-minute nomination on December 22 of a theologian, Reverend Norbert Kunonga, until recently based in the United States,
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He is alleged to support Mugabe's militant black empowerment policies, including "fast track" redistribution of 3 000 white owned farms to black Zimbabweans.
'If the church conducts business like Zanu(PF), there is no hope' "I have put this in the hands of lawyers. I have told Archbishop Bernard Malango that the process was a disgrace," said Neill.
"The church has to set a moral tone for the nation. If the church conducts its business in the same way that Zanu-PF does, then there is no hope."
Attempts will be made to refuse confirmation of Kunonga as bishop when the consistory court meets for this purpose on January 20, he said.
Archbishop Malango, based in Ndola, Zambia, is the senior among eight bishops in the Church of the Province of Central Africa, founded by 19th century English missionaries.
Kunonga, a theology lecturer at Africa University, Mutare, could not be reached on Thursday for comment but Bishop Sebastien Bakare of Bulawayo described the allegations of electoral impropriety as "very serious".
'There is no way the counting could have been rigged' "There is no way the counting could have been rigged," said the bishop.
Supporters of Neill said Kunonga was not among three approved, short-listed candidates put before 21 electors who met in the Zimbabwean midlands city of Gweru on December 22.
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