Next year's general elections in Zimbabwe are likely to be characterised by chaos, said Tuesday the country's main opposition which lost weekend by-elections to President Robert Mugabe's party.

The ruling Zimbabwe African National Union Patriotic Front (ZANU-PF) won a weekend parliamentary by-election that was marred by violence in Zengeza, on the outskirts of the capital.

"Zengeza gave the people of Zimbabwe a foretaste of the chaos that awaits the nation in 2005," said Morgan Tsvangirai, leader of the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC).

One opposition supporter was killed and others were injured during violent clashes between opposition members and the ruling party during polling.

"An analysis of the Zengeza by-election shows that political competition here remains a bloody affair 24 years after independence," said Tsvangirai in a statement.

Zimbabwe is due to hold its regular five-yearly legislative elections in March next year.

"ZANU-PF is prepared to kill and satisfy its hunger for power and oppression," alleged Tsvangirai.

The US government has also condemned the elections saying they were not free and fair.

In a statement, the US State Department said what should have been a "routine and peaceful expression of the local constituency's political will ... became another symbol of the ruling party's pursuit of electoral victories at the expense of democratic rights".

"We condemn the violence, intimidation and irregularities that occurred prior to and during the ... by-election," said the US government.

The MDC has threatened to boycott next year's polls unless certain conditions are met to level the playing field.

Its demands include the repeal of parts of the media law and aspects of the security law that "curtail the freedom of political parties to campaign".

It also wants the establishment of "a genuinely independent electoral commission" responsible for the entire electoral process.

The government plans to tighten electoral laws to give the state-appointed electoral supervisory commission the monopoly to conduct voter education - Sapa-AFP.