Maravi

There is no crisis in Zimbabwe says Mbeki

There is no crisis in Zimbabwe says Mbeki
By Kingsley Kaswende
Saturday April 12, 2008 [16:00]

SOUTH African president Thabo Mbeki has said he can't describe the post-election impasse in Zimbabwe as a crisis. And President Robert Mugabe has said he declined to attend the emergency SADC summit on the political impasse in his country following the elections two weeks ago because he had other serious business to do. Mbeki, who today stopped over in Harare on his way to Lusaka for urgent talks with President Mugabe, said the situation in Zimbabwe was a normal electoral process.

"There has been an electoral process. Everybody is waiting for ZEC (Zimbabwe Electoral Commission) to issue the results and for the court to rule. If nobody wins the clear majority there would be a run-off as prescribed by the law. I wouldn't describe that as a crisis but a normal electoral process," he told journalists at State House.

President Mwanawasa called for an urgent SADC summit in Lusaka following the post-election impasse that has seen the failure by ZEC to release the presidential results, now more than two weeks after the election.

The opposition MDC, which claims it won a straight majority without the need for a statutory run-off, last week dragged the electoral body to court in a bid to compel it to release the results. But the ruling ZANU-PF party had raised some anomalies regarding the election and petitioned ZEC for a recount.

President Mbeki, who has been SADC's appointed mediator between MDC and ZANU-PF, said he had been invited by President Mwanawasa, whom he said felt that "it was important to look at the electoral situation to see if we need to do anything about it."

On Thursday, President Mbeki met with MDC leader Morgan Tsvangirai and was briefed about the opposition's version of events in Zimbabwe.

"Morgan Tsvangirai came to give his own assessment of the situation and I listened to what he had to say. They (MDC) believe that they have won and they would not go for a re-run. But this is the matter that ZEC has to settle," President Mbeki said.

And President Mugabe said he declined to attend the Lusaka summit because he had other serious business to do.

He did not elaborate the "serious business" but said he was ably represented in Lusaka by a formidable team of three ministers.
"I'm not going but there are three people that have gone there on my behalf," he said.

"We are very good friends (with President Mwanawasa) but sometimes we attend other times we don't because we have other serious business to do. I got the invitation on Thursday and I sent three ministers," he said.

Meanwhile, the opposition MDC has called for a mass strike beginning Tuesday if the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission (ZEC) failed to publish the results of the presidential poll.

ZEC has since stated that it was waiting for the court ruling on Monday to proceed with the announcement.

The opposition party, which believes it won the election straight, has been distributing pamphlets urging people to stay-in from Tuesday.

"From Tuesday April 15, let us all stay at home until the presidential results have been announced.. We call on transporters, workers, vendors, and everyone ton stay at home. The power is in our hands," reads the pamphlet.

"Zimbabweans have been taken for granted for too long. We demand that the presidential results be announced now. President Tsvangirai won this election by 50,3 per cent. The MDC will not accept a run off.

Mugabe's term expired on March 29 2008. We demand that the deployment of security forces as a weapon of fear and intimidation stop now."

Labels: SADC, THABO MBEKI, ZEC, ZIMBABWE

posted by MrK @ 2:46 AM