PARIS, Jan 11: Zimbabwe faced international outcry and the threat of sanctions on Friday after the ruling party pushed through bills that entrench President Robert Mugabe’s power before presidential elections.

Australian Foreign Minister Alexander Downer said he would push for Zimbabwe’s suspension from the 54-nation Commonwealth when its heads of government meet in Brisbane on March 2-5.

“We don’t want a country sitting around the table with us, or a president sitting around the table with us, who doesn’t stand for the things we stand for,” Downer said.

“What is happening in the Zimbabwean parliament is clearly in breach of the standards of the Commonwealth.”

Britain — Zimbabwe’s former colonial ruler — has also threatened to seek the African nation’s suspension from the Commonwealth if political violence there worsens.

Mugabe’s ruling ZANU-PF party on Thursday muscled through parliament two bills designed to stop Mugabe being toppled in the March 9-10 election, the most hotly contested vote since he came to power 22 years ago.

The bills grant sweeping security powers to the government, make it an offence to criticise the president and authorise police to disperse public gatherings.

They also ban independent election monitors and disenfranchise at least a million Zimbabwean voters abroad, many of whom support the opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC).

A bill imposing tight controls on independent and foreign media is also expected to be passed soon by the ZANU-PF-dominated assembly.

Mugabe and his government face the threat of sanctions from the European Union, the United States and the Commonwealth over widespread rights abuses during the past two years.

Senior Zimbabwean ministers were meeting in Brussels on Friday with top EU officials, who were expected to threaten sanctions if ZANU-PF continued to curb freedoms, harass opponents and allow its militants to seize white-owned farms.—Reuters