Pre-elections irregularities in Zim worry US
Pre-elections irregularities in Zim worry USBy George Chellah in Harare, Zimbabwe
Thursday March 27, 2008 [12:10]
PRE-ELECTION irregularities will endanger Zimbabwe’s harmonised elections, the US government has stated. And the US government has encouraged Zimbabweans to exercise their democratic right to vote in a peaceful and orderly manner despite the obstacles.
According to a press statement issued by US Department of State spokesperson Sean McCormack, through its embassy in Harare, the US government outlined various pre-election irregularities ahead of this Saturday’s harmonised presidential, parliamentary and council elections.
“We are concerned that actions of the Zimbabwean government will preclude free and fair elections on March 29. Independent rganizations report extensive pre-election irregularities such as inaccurate voter rolls, violence and intimidation of competing political parties and civil society, overproduction of postal ballots for police, military, diplomats and electoral officials who will be voting both locally and in the ‘Diaspora’, and the absence of independent observation of the counting of postal votes to prevent multiple voting,” McCormack stated. “
Inadequate polling stations in urban areas, bias against the opposition in the government-controlled media, permission for police to be present inside polling stations in breach of the recent Southern African Development Community (SADC)-brokered agreement and politicized distribution of government-controlled food, and other benefits and government resources.”
McCormack stated that there was need for the Zimbabwean authorities to address the outlined issues.
“We call on the government of Zimbabwe, including the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission (ZEC), to take concrete actions to address these significant shortcomings, including respecting the human rights and fundamental freedoms of the Zimbabwean people,” McCormack stated.
“Despite these obstacles, we encourage all Zimbabweans to exercise their democratic right to vote in a peaceful and orderly manner.”
In January this year, the US government accused President Robert Mugabe’s government of undermining the spirit of the SADC mediation process on the crisis in Zimbabwe.
The US government expressed its disappointment with President Mugabe’s decision to announce the election date despite the on-going Thabo Mbeki led SADC dialogue process.
“We have supported the SADC-sponsored effort to resolve the political and economic crisis in Zimbabwe through negotiation between the ruling and opposition parties. We regret that President Mugabe has insisted on proceeding with the presidential and parliamentary
elections on March 29 without having reached an agreement on conditions that would have leveled the playing field for all parties planning to compete in those elections,” read the statement in part.
“Police efforts on January 23, (2008) to prevent the march and
rally by the opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) is further illustration of the Government of Zimbabwe undermining the spirit of the SADC process.”
posted by MrK @ 4:53 PM
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