SANF 08 No 38
Zimbabwe’s presidential run-off will proceed on Friday 27 June despite a UN Security Council resolution suggesting that conditions do not exist for a “free and fair” election.
The country’s Permanent Representative to the United Nations, Ambassador Boniface Chidyausiku explained that such a resolution is just a statement and does not imply any action, the weakest possible statement to be expected when the United States is chairing the Council, as it is for the month of June.
The Security Council was deeply divided on the issue with South Africa, Libya, Russia, China and others bargaining to reduce the tone of the language in exchange for their support of a weaker resolution.
The Security Council normally discusses issues of threat to international security, but Chidyausiku said the Zimbabwe discussion was political.
Announcing that the run-off will proceed as planned, the chairperson of the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission (ZEC), Justice George Chiweshe, said conditions do exist for the holding of the run-off.
“Can you tell me any place where there is fighting in Zimbabwe, where there has been an incident lasting one day or more? These scattered incidents are caused by political opponents confronting each other.”
Chiweshe said the withdrawal of the MDC-T candidate, Morgan Tsvangirai, had not been communicated properly in writing within the specified timeframe of 21 days in advance of the elections. Tsvangirai made the announcement this Sunday.
The Commissioner-General of the Zimbabwe Republic Police (ZRP), Augustine Chihuri, said the opposition leader has been “moving back and forth across the country, with buses and cars, campaigning and no complaints of impediments have been received” by the ZRP.
Chihuri also denied that there are any political detainees in Zimbabwe and said that anyone arrested has been charged with a criminal offence, including the MDC-T secretary-general, Tendai Biti, who is facing charges of treason and election rigging.
He said supporters of both parties have been arrested on charges of political violence, adding that MDC-T has not reported any security concerns for their leader that would have caused him to seek refuge in a foreign embassy.
Tsvangirai sought “refuge” at the Netherlands embassy on Sunday, soon after announcing his withdrawal from the run-off and just before the UN Security Council met to discuss Zimbabwe.
Political analysts have described this as a ploy to increase pressure on the Security Council rather than a genuine security concern, noting that opposition demonstrations and street protests have in past coincided with summits of the European Union or G8.
President Robert Mugabe, who is the candidate of the ruling ZANU-PF, has accused the US and the United Kingdom of spreading lies to facilitate “regime change” in Zimbabwe.
He told an election rally on Monday that “Britain and her allies are telling a lot of lies about Zimbabwe saying a lot of people are dying. These are all lies because they want to build a situation to justify their intervention in Zimbabwe.”
The electoral law requires a run-off election to be held between the top two contenders if no presidential candidate gets more than 50 percent of the valid votes cast in the first round, as was the case with the 29 March elections.
After delays in verification and the announcement of results on 2 May, the date for the run-off was set for 27 June and the Zimbabwe government is eager to complete without further delay an electoral process that has dragged on for more than four months.
The Security Council urged the international monitors and observers to remain in place in Zimbabwe.
The Southern African Development Community (SADC), the African Union and the Pan-African Parliament have deployed more than 600 election observers in preparation for the poll, in addition to observers from other countries and local monitors.
This is a significant increase in the number of observers from the 29 March elections.
