Public higher-education institutions in Zimbabwe have been ordered to remain closed until after parliamentary and presidential elections in late March, according to a former national student leader and a university official.

President Robert Mugabe, who has ordered elections to be held March 29, is worried that students might hold demonstrations if the results were perceived to be rigged in his favor, said Promise Mkwananzi, a former president of the Zimbabwe National Students Union.

Mr. Mugabe’s authoritarian regime has singled out many academics, and Zimbabwe’s university system has been severely crippled by the country’s continuing economic and political crisis.

Mr. Mkwananzi said that the ministry of higher and tertiary education had ordered vice chancellors of the universities to keep their campuses closed even though they were supposed to reopen in two weeks, following their winter break.

An official in the vice chancellor’s office at the University of Zimbabwe, who asked to remain anonymous, confirmed the news.

“The directive from the ministry is that universities will open just after the elections,” the official said.

All public universities, colleges, and polytechnical institutes will be affected.

The move has been criticized by the Zimbabwe National Students Union, whose officials think the government is concerned about post-election violence.

Mr. Mkwananzi said government leaders might also be worried that students would mobilize in favor of the opposition. —Wachira Kigotho