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Zimbabwe: ANC to Army - Back Off!
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Financial Gazette (Harare)
20 March 2008
Posted to the web 20 March 2008
Rangarirai Mberi
Harare
SOUTH Africa's ruling African National Congress (ANC) has urged Zimbabwe's security forces to respect the outcome of polls next week, even as the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission (ZEC) refused to condemn the utterances of defence chiefs that threaten the credibility of the elections.
And President Robert Mugabe's decision on Monday to invoke presidential powers to amend electoral laws, so that police can be allowed into polling stations, will also be seen as a fresh assault on agreements reached in talks mediated by South Africa.
Zimbabwe Defence Forces Commander Constantine Chiwenga, Police Commissioner General Augustine Chihuri and Paradzayi Zimondi, the head of Zimbabwe Prisons Services, have said they will not accept any result except one in which President Mugabe is the winner.
They said they would never salute either of the two main opposition challengers, Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) leader Morgan Tsvangirai or former finance minister Simba Makoni, saying they were "British stooges" and "puppets".
Zimondi's statement was the most theatric. He said he would lock himself away at his farm and take up arms to defend his land, which he believes will be threatened under a new government.
These threats have caused alarm in the region, which had hoped for free and fair elections in Zimbabwe, where the continuing political crisis has centred on disputed election results since 2000.
It is against this background that the ANC has urged the defence chiefs to respect the outcome of elections at the end of this month.
"The ANC urges all institutions of state in Zimbabwe, and in particular the security forces, to remain non-partisan and to respect the outcome of the elections," the ANC said in a statement.
The opposition has deplored the leading role of the military in Zimbabwe's elections. Former and serving military personnel also head key state institutions.
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South Africa has led a regional effort over the past year to get ZANU-PF and the MDC to agree on political reforms. Although the talks resulted in constitutional reforms that both parties said were the basis for the holding of free elections, the opposition says ZANU-PF has reneged on most of the agreements, leaving the electoral field tilted in its favour.
Last week, South Africa's deputy foreign affairs minister, Aziz Pahad, said Zimbabwe could not afford yet another disputed election, as this would only prolong the country's political and economic crisis.
But even as South Africa raised concerns over the threats by the security forces, ZEC chairman George Chiweshe - himself an ex-army officer - said the commission would not condemn these utterances because speaking out "would be going beyond the mandate of ZEC."
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