4 November 2008
President Ian Khama of Botswana has called for Zimbabwe's contested presidential election to be re-run under international supervision.
Delivering his state of the nation address to the Botswana Parliament ahead of this weekend's planned summit of Southern African leaders, Khama said member states of the Southern African Development Community (SADC) had to uphold the regional standards of governance they had adopted.
Botswana was seriously concerned about Zimbabwe's "failure to form a Government that is widely accepted by the people of that country," Khama said. "The one viable way forward" was to re-run the presidential election.
"That way a repeat of the past run-off presidential election, which was declared by regional and international observers to be neither free nor fair and was characterised by intimidation and violence, can be avoided," he added. "It should be unacceptable for ruling parties to seek to manipulate election outcomes to extend their stay in power, as this is bad for democracy on our continent."
The South African foreign ministry has told news agencies that a SADC heads of state summit has been called for Sunday to discuss the deadlock over the formation of a power-sharing government in Zimbabwe and the violence in the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo. South Africa currently chairs SADC.
Movement for Democratic Change leader Morgan Tsvangirai beat President Robert Mugabe in the first round of this year's presidential election in March, but not by a big enough margin to avoid a run-off. Tsvangirai pulled out of a June run-off in protest at the violence perpetrated on his supporters ahead of polling.
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I wonder really on what standing does Khama advocate for another round of election in Zimbabwe when he himself is not an elected president. Did the people of Botswana voted him into power or he was just handed over the reigns.Please if you are failing to have a sleep on the issues of Zimbabwe why don"t you just shut up,close your eyes and ears so that you say nothing, see nothing and hear nothing or you may want to translocate your country to another planet where you would not share a border with our beautiful Zimbabwe which is being destroyed… [Read Full Text]
Author 'Icho' must be a lunatic I don't know which Zimbabwe he is living in .He must be a nephew of Mugabe who is living well at his uncles mansion in Borrowdale brook which was built thru money stolen from the Zimbabwean people. We want new elections in the country and beat Mugabe clean.
Womudenga, face reality my "learned"friend. I am a proud Zimbabwean living in Zimbabwe and proud in the sense of being a citizen of this country by birth and had been staying here my whole life, i am in my middle fourties. I have never had any relationship and will never have any with Bob my beloved President. We, real Zimbabweans will never fear to say the truth. I will never ever accept any nonsense from Khama, who is he to Zimbabwe, he never went thru an election so on WHAT BASES does he want to force us to hold another… [Read Full Text]
brainwashed....
Yes, you are really brainwashed by Western orientation, if you are an African you are a real misfit
I back my arguments up with logic, fact and sound rationality which you simply cannot argue with. Your posts are full of emotion, lies and propoganda not based on anything but your brainwashed mind.
I've yet to read one of your posts which is not full of irrational emotion.
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Active Discussions: Botswana Calls for New Election in Zimbabwe