By Nelson Banya

HARARE, Aug 22 (Reuters) - Zimbabwe's opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) on Wednesday accused the government of taking measures to prevent its supporters from registering to vote in next year's elections.

The Zimbabwe Electoral Commission (ZEC) announced this week that more than 80,000 new voters were registered between June 18 and Aug. 17, when voter registration closed.

But Ian Makone, director of elections in the Morgan Tsvangirai-led faction of the MDC, told reporters the number of new voters was "a far cry from the hundreds of thousands of prospective voters".

"The MDC is aware of the overt machinations by the regime to steal the people's vote through a biased and opaque mobile voter registration," Makone said, charging that among other things the registration period was not adequately publicised and that registration efforts were concentrated in ruling party areas.

Neither the ZEC nor government officials were immediately available to comment on the accusations.

President Robert Mugabe, 83 and in power since British independence in 1980, has said he will stand in next year's presidential election, in which his ruling ZANU-PF is likely to face a divided opposition.

Critics say Mugabe is accelerating efforts to consolidate his power as the economy crumbles and Western powers pressure him to enact political reforms.

The former African liberation hero faces growing discontent over an economic crisis marked by the world's highest inflation rate of 4,500 percent and severe food, fuel and foreign currency shortages.

Mugabe has denied allegations of human rights abuses and accused Zimbabwe's weak opposition of teaming up with Western powers to oust him.

Makone said the ZEC had deliberately set up more voter registration centres in the rural provinces -- where the ruling ZANU-PF enjoys support -- than in urban areas, where the opposition has performed strongly in past elections.

"This was a well-calculated ploy not only to disenfranchise millions of potential MDC voters, but also to have more people registering in rural Mashonaland provinces so as to pave the way for the creation of new constituencies in areas ZANU-PF considers politically safe," he said.

Mugabe's government has proposed increasing parliamentary constituencies from the current 120 to 210, among a raft of constitutional changes expected to be brought to parliament in the current session.

The two factions of the MDC, which split in 2005 over participation in senate elections, have so far failed to agree to a coalition pact for the general election set to be held in March 2008 and has faced a growing crackdown.

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