THE United Kingdom Foreign Secretary William Hague says there should be an independent audit of Zimbabwe’s elections before the poll results can be deemed credible.
Report by Veneranda Langa
President Robert Mugabe was yesterday sworn-in after the Constitutional Court (ConCourt) on Tuesday declared the July elections free, fair and credible.
“I am extremely concerned that the MDC-T had to withdraw its legal challenge due to concerns over the independence of the judiciary. I strongly believe that an independent investigation of any allegations of election irregularities would be required for the election result to be deemed credible,” said Hague in a statement.
“As I have set out previously, I have grave concerns over the conduct of the election, and the flaws highlighted in the Southern African Development Community (Sadc) and African Union (AU) observation missions’ initial assessments. These included the failure to produce the voters’ roll, the large number of voters who were turned away on election day, the very high numbers of extra ballot papers that were printed, as well as the reforms that were not completed as part of the Global Political Agreement (GPA), including to the media environment and security sector.”
Hague said while Sadc withheld judgment on whether the election was either fair or credible, due to the flaws, “I am disappointed that the election result was endorsed at last weekend’s Sadc Summit.
“I hope that the Sadc and AU final reports will take into account the full impact of the failure to complete the reforms outlined in the Global Political Agreement, as well as the numerous and serious irregularities highlighted on the day.”
