RSSBotswana Gazette » Zimbabwe elections a circus – Merafhe Comments Feed HOME ABOUT US CONTACTS TERMS OF USE Home NEWS SPORTS LIFESTYLE MONEY TECH TRAVEL SUPPLEMENTS OPINION WEATHER ARCHIVES Zimbabwe elections a circus – MerafheBy Phaladi Letswamotse, 08, Aug 2013 in Attraction Latest News Nation News Slider 0 0 Former Vice President LieutenantGeneral MompatiMerafhe said his fi rst wordswhen he met President Ian Khamaon his arrival from the electionobservation mission in Zimbabwewas that he never came across thekind ofcircus such as the one hewitnessed in the Zimbabwe elections.Merafhe,who was the captainof the 80 member electionobserver team dispatched by governmentto Zimbabwe revealedthe news to the media yesterday.He said Zimbabwe let themdown. “What was supposed to bean election turned out to be somethingelse. Our brothers and sistershave let us down. When youare dealing with a government,and especially when you are agroup of countries like SADC,you rely on the goodwill of everybody;you would expectall thestakeholders to come on board butyou cannot give any instructionsto an independent state no matterhow violently you disagree withthe way they are doing things. Sowe can only use our powers ofpersuasion,” he said.Merafhe said there are fi ve criteriathat are used to determine thefairness of the election. “They arecalled the principles or guidelinesof SADC on the observation ofthe elections. The elections haveto be fair, peaceful, transparent,credible and free.These principlesdetermine the worth of an electionbut the Zimbabwe case hasbeen classifi ed as free and peacefuland it is fair there was peace. The elections were violence shy.But the other three criteria werecertainly lacking. You cannot saythey were transparent, you cannotsay they were fair andyou cannotsay they were credible,” Merafhesaid.In his remarks, the Minister ofForeign Affairs and InternationalCooperation, Phandu Skelemanisaid the Botswana observer teamreported that the Election Day itselfwas free of overt intimidationand violence; however, variousincidents and circumstances wererevealed that call into questionwhether the entire electoral process,and thus its fi nal result canbe recognised as having been fair,transparent and credible in thecontext of the SADC principlesand guidelines governing democraticelections within the community. That is why the SADCElectoralObserver Mission describedthe elections as freeandpeaceful as opposed to being freeand fair.“It is the position of the governmentthat it is a common interestof the SADC member’s statesincluding Zimbabwe to observethe SADC community’s sharedelection guidelines so as to ensuretransparency andcredibility of theentire electoral process. In this respectthe door should not be leftopen for others either within oroutside the community to disparageour collective commitment toour common principles of democracyin general and the conduct offree and fair elections in particular,”said Skelemani.“It is the perspective of the governmentof Botswana that in thecontext of the preliminary fi ndingsof SADC Electoral ObserverMission, as well as the initial reportof our own observer team,that there is a need for an independentaudit of the just concludedelectoral process in Zimbabwe,”Skelemani said. He further saidthat government hopes that the issuewill be placed on the agendaat the next SADC summit to beheld in Malawi later this month.“There is no doubt that whathas been revealed so far by ourobservers cannot be consideredas an acceptable standard for freeand fair elections in SADC. TheSADC should never create theundesirable precedent of permittingexceptions to its own rules,”he said.Contacted for comment, ZimbabweAfrican National Union– Patriotic Front (ZANU-PF)Secretary for Information andPublicity, Rugare Gumbo saidthat the Botswana delegation, likeany other, is entitled to its opinion.“I think the delegation is entitledto its opinion, that’s whatthey think. The concretefact isthat the elections were peaceful,free, fair and credible,” he said,further indicating that the issue ofwhether something is fair or not isan opinion. “We have our opinion, theyhave theirs, SADC its own, AUhave its own and theChineseobservers have theirs; that is nota key issue, the key issue is thatthe elections were conducted in atranquil environment,” he said.Douglas Mwonzora, spokepersonof Morgan Tsvangirai’s Movementfor Democratic Change reiteratedMerafhe and Skelemani’ssentiments. He said that SADChas set the standards for electionsand must stick to them. “TheSADCguidelines on free and fairelections were adopted inLesothosome years ago. Theysaid theelections must be free and fair forthem to be accepted. The absenceof bloodshed does not mean thatthe elections were fair,” he said.He said that SADC has requestedthe MDC to provide them withevidence that the elections werenot fair, whichhe said they arecurrently preparing. He said thatprior to the elections close to 500,000 people were denied the rightto register for elections and a further750, 000 were turned awayon the voting day with the reasoningthat voting had been closed. “Ithink this is the type of unfairnessthat SADC is talkingabout, whyshould we accept the results whenthe electionswere not fair?” hesaid.He said the fact that his partywas given the voters roll on theday of the electionsmeans thatthe elections were illegitimate andso fl awed that it vitiates its credibility.“Zimbabwe does not havespecial standards forelections,the standards should be universal.SADC must stop appeasing (Robert)Mugabe,” Mwonzora said,concluding by saying that the ZANU-PF can say thatthe electionswere fair because they were theperpetrators of unfairness. About Author Phaladi Letswamotse Latest News 48-Hour film festival inspires Filmmakers who took partin the recent 48-Hour .. 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Headline in the Botswana Gazette for the period Wednesday 21 -27 August 2013August 29, 2013 Sign Up Newsletter About Us The newspaper that embraces support fora democratic, multi-party system of government, open, and accountable government, human rights for all and a free market economy, tempered with social responsibility. Flickr Connect With Us Quick Finder Agriculture attraction BCP BDP beMobile BFA blog BMD BNF BOMU Branding Education Entertainment Football Gaborone United Health Labour music Politics PPADB President slider sport UDC Botswana Gazette © 2013| All Rights Reserved
Posted on: Wed, 04 Sep 2013 06:26:16 +0000
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