Maravi

Mugabe coming for SADC meeting

Mugabe coming for SADC meeting
By Fridah Zinyama and Chibaula Silwamba
Saturday April 12, 2008 [04:00]

ZIMBABWE’s foreign affairs secretary Ambassador Joey Bimha yesterday said the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission (ZEC) has started the vote recounting process. And Zambia’s opposition Patriotic Front president Michael Sata yesterday said the current crisis in Zimbabwe could have been avoided if political leaders exercised tolerance.

In an interview on arrival at Lusaka International Airport, Ambassador Bimha said there was nothing unusual for the Southern African Development Community (SADC) chairman President Levy Mwanawasa to call for an extra-ordinary summit of heads of state following Zimbabwe’s post-election situation.

He said he did not even know what SADC expected to hear from them.
Ambassador Bimha said there had been some discrepancies with the election results, which necessitated the need for a re-count.

“As a result of the discrepancies in the results, some ZEC officials have pleaded guilty and have been arrested and are awaiting trial,” he said.

Ambassador Bimha said in light of those discrepancies, ZANU-PF approached ZEC for a re-count which was currently going on to verify the vote.

Asked why it had taken long for ZEC to announce the presidential results, Ambassador Bimha said some countries took as long as three weeks to announce the results.

He said, therefore, there was no need for alarm over the delay in announcing presidential results.

“There is nothing abnormal about a re-count of the votes when certain parties are not satisfied with the results,” Ambassador Bimha said.

“And there is no reason why Zimbabweans should be worried about the outcome of the results.”
And Ambassador Bimha expressed confidence about the outcome of the results as ZEC was an independent body that would do its work independently.

“ZEC is an independent electoral commission and they can take as long as they want to recount the vote in Zimbabwe in order to clear the doubts about the votes.

ZEC is independent; it is not part of government. So we will give them the opportunity to do their work, to verify the results,” he said. “After they have done that then they will announce the results. This is the situation in Zimbabwe there is nothing unusual, it is the normal electoral process. The people should just patiently wait for the outcome of the results.”
Ambassador Bimha said he did not know what SADC Heads of State expect from the Zimbabwean delegation.

“I don’t know what they expect. But what we expect is to explain to them what is happening in Zimbabwe and for them to understand the process that is happening in Zimbabwe,” Ambassador Bimha said.

Asked if President Robert Mugabe would attend today’s emergency meeting, Ambassador Bimha responded: “I think so. Yes!”

He maintained that Zimbabwe had free and fair elections.
And in his letter to President Mwanawasa dated April 9, 2008, Sata commended the President for calling the extra-ordinary SADC summit to discuss the Zimbabwe situation.

“Your Excellency, as chairman of SADC, you should also seriously reflect on what is happening in Zimbabwe,” Sata stated. “If the leaders in Zimbabwe were tolerant of each other, the current situation might have been avoided. However, I would like to commend your initiative of involving the SADC in the search for a resolution to the Zimbabwe crisis.”

Labels: MUGABE, SADC, ZEC

posted by MrK @ 3:30 AM