BuaNews (Tshwane)
Bathandwa Mbola
18 April 2008
Pretoria — A delegation from South Africa will be deployed to Zimbabwe to join the Southern African Development Community's (SADC) team that will observe a vote recount in the country.
Ballots from 23 constituencies in the country's parliamentary and presidential elections will be recounted this Saturday. This after the Zimbabwean Electoral Commission (ZEC) has not released the presidential results more than two weeks after the 29 March 2008 elections. Foreign Affairs Deputy Minister Aziz Pahad told reporters on Thursday, that President Thabo Mbeki's facilitation team will also travel there.
"It's expected to interact with the ZEC to see how the release of the poll results can be speeded up. "Generally, following the Extra-ordinary Summit it was felt that the facilitation should go to Zimbabwe to further discuss with the ZEC how to expedite the pronouncement of the election result," Mr Pahad told the media, adding that like the rest of the world, South Africa is very keen that the results do get released as expeditiously as possible.
President Mbeki, who is the chief facilitator between Zimbabwe's governing Zanu-PF party and the opposition, Movement for Democratic Change in the build-up to the election, role has laid a firm foundation for Zimbabweans to elect leaders of their choice. At the same time, the South African government has expressed great concern at the delays and the anxiety it is causing.
"The South African government would do everything within its power to make sure the outstanding election results are released, and if necessary he said, government would interact directly with the ZEC," said Government Spokesperson Themba Maseko at a post-Cabinet briefing on Thursday.
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Recounting the votes in suspected constituencies in the presence of international observers will remove the foul and pungent smell that enveloped the swapping of the election results. It is the next best to the very expensive approach of reruning the elections. This approach shows to the world that the government is committed to fairness and democracy. Truth will eventually prevail!