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Mugabe gets another term, heads for Egypt's AU summit

Mugabe gets another term, heads for Egypt's AU summit
By Kingsley Kaswende in Harare and Larry Moonze in Havana, Cuba
Monday June 30, 2008 [04:00]

ROBERT Mugabe was yesterday sworn-in as Zimbabwe's President after a sweeping victory in the solo runoff election which registered a record number of spoilt votes in the history of that country’s elections. And Cuban deputy foreign minister Abelardo Moreno called for adherence to the firm principles of respect to sovereignty, non-use of force or threats of force to apply on Zimbabwe.

President Mugabe was greeted with a 21-gun salute and military jet fly-by at State House in Harare during the ceremony.

Even before the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission (ZEC) announced the results, preparations were ongoing for President Mugabe’s swearing-in ceremony at State House and guests were seated by 14:30 hours.

MDC leader Morgan Tsvangirai, who withdrew from the race leaving President Mugabe as the only candidate, had been invited to the ceremony but he declined to attend.

According to ZEC figures, President Mugabe recorded 2,150,269 votes (85.51 per cent) while Tsvangirai, despite withdrawing, got 233,000 votes (9.3 per cent). There were a record 131,481 spoilt votes. A total of 2,514,750 people voted out of six million registered voters.

“I, Lovemore Sekeramyi, being the constituency elections officer of the runoff presidential election declare that I have, in accordance with the Electoral Act… ascertained the results of the said presidential runoff poll…I declare Robert Gabriel Mugabe this 29th day of June 2008 to be the duly elected President of the Republic of Zimbabwe,” the chief elections officer said.

Sekeramayi said the percentage poll was 42.37 per cent.
Election observers said most of the spoilt ballots contained unpalatable messages against President Mugabe.

ZANU-PF also won the two more parliamentary seats in the by-elections while MDC won one in which information minister Sikhanyiso Ndlovu lost.

This brought the number of MDC’s combined seats in the lower House of Assembly to 111 while ZANU-PF now has 99 seats.
President Mugabe later left for Egypt to attend the African Union summit, which opens today.

And in an interview after a press conference at Havana’s International Press Centre on the progress of the Non-Aligned Movement (NAM) currently chaired by Cuba, Moreno said the organisation was aware of the US and UK moves seeking international condemnation of Zimbabwe.

“The movement NAM has not discussed the issue of Zimbabwe specifically,” Moreno said. “We do not discard the possibility. Zimbabwe has not requested the movement to act. Nonetheless we have an impeccable general position first to firmly defend the principle of sovereignty, non-interference into internal affairs of any country and firm defence of non-use of force or threat to use force. All these principles are applicable to the case of Zimbabwe.”

He said should Zimbabwe call on the NAM, the movement which makes up two-thirds of the UN, would come up with an action plan.
And Moreno said the NAM had been reactivated and was active in international processes.

He said the movement was strong in New York (UN), at the Commission on Human Rights (Geneva), at the UNESCO headquaters in Paris, France and at the International Atomic Energy Agency in Vienna, Austria.

He said since assuming the presidency of the NAM in September 2006, Cuba had done its all to give life to the movement.
Moreno said the NAM had gone through difficult moments and that currently, it was in a time of increased activity going by the international situation.

He said NAM member-states were aware of the need to fight for their rights in a world where many international laws were being violated.
Moreno said the current soaring fuel prices, the food crisis and global financial problems obliged countries of the south to come up with a common agenda.

“We are beginning a new era of the NAM’s work,” he said. “We are coordinating positions and asking for transparency in all international processes to avoid manipulation in order to preserve world peace.”
Moreno said the NAM had strengthened the links of countries of the South with the G7, which negotiates issues of economic trade.
He said it was important that developing countries worked with one voice on economic issues.

Moreno said the forthcoming summit in Margarita Island, Venezuela scheduled for next week would come up with a common position over media manipulation.

He urged Non-Aligned Movement member countries to come up with a news agency to broadcast reality in Third World countries. “The movement should take its own ways to broadcast truth on what is happening in developing countries,” said Moreno.

Labels: AU, ELECTIONS, MUGABE

posted by MrK @ 3:49 AM