Regional bloc says too early to declare Zimbabwe poll fair

 
The head of the Sadc Observer Mission, Tanzanian Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation minister Bernard Membe speaks during a press conference in Harare yesterday. Sadc said, it was too early to declare Zimbabwe’s disputed election fair, but noted the vote was free and passed off without violence. PHOTO | AFP

By Kitsepile Nyathi and Agencies  (email the author)


IN SUMMARY

“We have said this election is free, indeed very free,” said Sadc’s top election observer, Tanzania’s Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation minister Bernard Membe.

Harare. The Southern Africa Development Community (Sadc) said yesterday it was too soon to call Zimbabwe’s disputed election fair, but noted that the vote was free and passed off without violence.

“We have said this election is free, indeed very free,” said Sadc’s top election observer, Tanzania’s Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation minister Bernard Membe.

“We did not say it was fair... we didn’t want to jump to a conclusion at this point in time,” he said, amid deeply divergent accounts of voting.

President Robert Mugabe’s allies have claimed a landslide victory in the polls, which has been dismissed by rival Morgan Tsvangirai as a “sham”.

The African Union whose lead observer was former Nigerian president Olusegun Obasanjo has also declared the poll free and fair, but independent observers have reported a litany of problems, including around one million voters being turned away.

Mr Obasanjo said AU monitors noted some apparent irregularities but they were not enough to constitute evidence of systematic vote tampering.

The former president said AU observers noted, “incidences that could have been avoided and even tended to have breached the law.” He asked the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission to investigate reports that thousands of eligible voters were prevented from casting their ballots.

“If 25 per cent were not allowed, then yes, the election is fatally flawed,” Mr Obasanjo said.

Official results of parliamentary elections announced by Friday showed Zanu- PF cruising to a two thirds majority in Parliament.

Despite raising a number of issues of concern, Mr Obasanjo refused to say the elections were not credible. “I have never seen an election that is perfect,” he said. “The process continues and we have to limit our comments.”

With 600 observers on the ground, the verdict of the 15-member Sadc bloc will be closely watched by western nations barred from monitoring the poll themselves. Sadc negotiated the creation of a power-sharing government in the wake of 2008’s bloody poll.

With the spectre of fresh unrest hanging over the crisis-wracked nation, Sadc called on all parties to accept the result.