Denver Isaacs
17 April 2008
Windhoek — SADC leaders' failure to hold President Robert Mugabe accountable for the volatile post-election situation in Zimbabwe was sharply criticised by a group of Zimbabweans visiting Namibia this week.
The Namibia Institute for Democracy (NID) on Tuesday hosted a panel discussion in Windhoek with media and civil society representatives from Zimbabwe. All of them were adamant that SADC could not continue to sit back and watch one of its members disintegrate. "The people's voice is clear. They passed their verdict on March 29," said Abel Chikomo, a researcher at the Media Monitoring Project Zimbabwe (MMPZ). "But their will is not being respected by this regime," he said. Chikomo said he believed that Mugabe's aim in continuing to delay the results of the presidential election was to "force the people to react, and react violently". If this happened, he said, the ruling party could declare a state of emergency and rule the country by decree.
Gordon Moyo, of the civil group the Bulawayo Agenda, said he was disappointed with the soft stance regional leaders had taken after their weekend summit. "We're pleased that the summit was called. We're also happy with (SADC chair and Zambian president) Levy Mwanawasa's opening remarks, where he stated that there was in fact an emergency, and that the rule of law had not been respected," he said. "What's worrying, however, is that SADC failed to hold their colleague to account. They almost seemed to be begging the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission (ZEC) to release the results. We felt that SADC was supposed to demand for the results to be released, and with a timeframe. "The people were expecting change, and on March 29 they spoke for themselves," he said, adding that it was shameful for SADC to act as spectators while the rule of law was being disregarded in that country. Irene Petras, Acting Director of Zimbabwean Lawyers for Human Rights, described her frustration as an accredited election observer who had been banned from entering areas where the electoral commission does its business.
"Already 48 hours after the elections the votes were known," she said, adding that about 60 pages of paper were taken for verification and have not been seen since. "The election process has been completely compromised," she said, adding that regional intervention was needed to bring back independent observers and to stop the intimidation of the electorate.
"It is a reasonable perception to say that, as the situation is now, without adequate security, without observers, with nobody having access to the ballot boxes, with nobody knowing where they are even being kept, that the results, when they will be released, may not be accurate. There is a great chance of tampering," she said.
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