The Zimbabwean authorities are guilty of denying opposition supporters access to state food supplies as part of a systematic attempt to intimidate opponents ahead of next week’s presidential and parliamentary elections, the US rights group, Human Rights Watch said on Wednesday.

In a report entitled “All Over Again” a reference to widely recorded human rights abuses in the countdown to the last three elections in Zimbabwe, the US group in effect rules out the chance of a free and fair vote on March 29.