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Zimbabwe: SA Election Observer Team Furious Over DA Report
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The Zimbabwe Guardian (London)
28 March 2008
Posted to the web 28 March 2008
THE HEAD of the South African contingent of the regional observer team for the Zimbabwean elections, Kingsley Mamabolo has vowed to sit down with the rest of the leadership to discuss the conduct of three Democratic Alliance members who have issued a damning report on the election process in Zimbabwe.
Mamabolo, who has privately met President Robert Mugabe yesterday confided in him that South African president, Thabo Mbeki had told him that the British government regretted its stance on the Zimbabwean government.
He said that the behavior by the three DA members could be a violation of the code of conduct adopted by the Southern African Development Community (SADC) Electoral Observer Mission (SEOM).
SEOM comes into the country through invitation of the government of Zimbabwe as stated in the SADC guidelines.
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The SEOM code of conduct compels the mission to comply with national laws and maintain strict impartiality in the conduct of their duties. "We work as a collective, and will look at allegations of irregularities together. We need to verify them before we come to an assessment. If the DA wanted to come with their own report, they should have got accreditation outside SEOM," said Mamabolo. He accused the DA members of using the SEOM as a cover to get their message out.
Mamabolo said there was a code of conduct that expressly forbade members to talk to the media, whether on their own or through their parties at home. "I'm very worried about their behaviour," said Mamabolo, adding that the DA members had also reported that ANC members of the Sadc delegation had expressed their dissatisfaction with their tough questioning of Zimbabwean officials.
DA foreign affairs spokesman, Tony Leon yesterday said the party had received its observers' first report and had also been briefed by various non-governmental organisations. "Our electoral observers, Dianne Kohler-Barnard MP and James Masango MP, have pointed to the fact that the odds are heavily stacked against the March 29 poll being genuinely democratic," said Leon in South Africa yesterday. However, Mamabolo indicated at a briefing before the South Africans' departure that they would not "make noise" over irregularities. DA officials said the two parties had been at loggerheads even before the start of the mission, after Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs Aziz Pahad declared that everything seemed set for a free and fair election.
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