Reuters
- Zimbabwe’s neighbors on Wednesday urged the postponement of Friday’s presidential election, saying the re-election of President Robert Mugabe could lack legitimacy in the current violent climate.
The call by a security troika of southern African nations put the heaviest pressure yet on Mugabe, who has so far defied a storm of international condemnation of bloody violence following the first round of elections on March 29.
Regional power South Africa added to the pressure, saying a top negotiator was in Harare mediating talks on options including postponement of the vote.
But Zimbabwe’s Electoral Commission (ZEC) ruled that last Sunday’s withdrawal from the election by opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai had no legal force and the poll would go ahead.
Tsvangirai, who pulled out of the contest because of violence which has killed almost 90 of his followers, said the vote was a sham and called for the African Union, backed by the United Nations, to lead a transition in Zimbabwe.
A security troika of the Southern African Development Community (SADC) said after meeting near the Swazi capital Mbabane: “It is the considered opinion of the organ summit that holding the election under the current circumstances may undermine the credibility and legitimacy of its outcome.”
It said the group had been briefed by South African President Thabo Mbeki, the designated SADC mediator in Zimbabwe, on Tuesday.
Mbeki has previously been widely criticized for taking an ineffective soft line with Mugabe. Kenyan Prime Minister Raila Odinga on Wednesday called for a new mediator.
The troika, comprising Tanzania — the African Union chairman — Swaziland and Angola, urged talks between government and opposition before a new date was set for the presidential run-off.
MUGABE STRIPPED OF KNIGHTHOOD
Britain on Wednesday stripped Mugabe of an honorary knighthood awarded in 1994 when the Zimbabwean president was still considered a model African leader by the former colonial power. The foreign ministry said the action was taken as “a mark of revulsion” at human rights abuses in Zimbabwe.
Tsvangirai spoke at a press conference at his home after leaving the Dutch embassy where he took refuge after announcing the pull-out last Sunday. But he returned to the embassy later.
He told reporters during his brief news conference: “I am asking the AU and SADC to lead an expanded initiative supported by the U.N. to manage what I will call a transitional process.”
The opposition leader said the election would not be accepted either by Zimbabweans or the world. He called on the AU to discuss the crisis next weekend at a summit in Egypt.
Pressure has mounted both inside and outside Africa to call off the vote since Tsvangirai withdrew. Mugabe, 84, is now certain to be elected to extend his 28-year rule.
South African spokesman Themba Maseko told Reuters: “The facilitation talks between the various parties in Zimbabwe are looking at all aspects that will bring a possible settlement… all options are being considered which would, I suspect, include the possibility of a postponement.”
He said senior negotiator Sydney Mufamadi was in Harare talking both to the government and opposition.
ELECTION MONITORS THREATENED
A group of independent election monitors in Zimbabwe said on Wednesday they would not be able to observe the vote because of threats to their safety.
A South African foreign affairs spokesman said around 300 Zimbabweans sought refuge at their embassy on Wednesday. The ambassador was negotiating with the group, said to be opposition supporters.
Human rights organizations, Western powers and Tsvangirai’s Movement for Democratic Change accused Mugabe of launching a campaign of murder and intimidation after he and his ZANU-PF party lost the first round of elections.
Tsvangirai fell short of the absolute majority required for outright victory in that vote.
Mugabe, in power since 1980, has presided over a slide into economic chaos that has sent millions of refugees fleeing to neighboring states and pushed inflation to an estimated 2 million percent.
In the first concrete step to punish Mugabe for the violence, Britain said it was preparing tougher sanctions against specific members of Zimbabwe’s government.
Tsvangirai said that while he was prepared to negotiate with Mugabe’s ZANU-PF before Friday, his MDC would “not have anything to do” with a government that emerged from the vote.
Nobel peace laureate Archbishop Desmond Tutu also called for peacekeepers to be sent.
Mugabe “has mutated into something quite unbelievable. He has really turned into a kind of Frankenstein for his people,” Tutu told ABC television in Australia.
