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‘Sadc credibility compromised’

Politics
A LOCAL election lobby group Election Resource Centre (ERC) speaks about Sadc’s recent endorsement of President Robert Mugabe’s disputed election victory

A LOCAL election lobby group Election Resource Centre (ERC) says Sadc’s recent endorsement of President Robert Mugabe’s disputed election victory had compromised the regional bloc’s credibility and warned that the “election fiasco scourge” could “run viral”.

REPORT BY CHIEF REPORTER

In a statement yesterday, ERC said: “Sadc is now greatly compromised to enforce credibility of democratic elections having lowered standards on electoral conduct in clear deviation of the regional body`s own set principles and guidelines.

“The fact that Sadc has not only accepted and endorsed the July 31 poll results, but also congratulated itself for handling the Zimbabwean situation, should spell doom for all other countries in the region faced with an election in the next coming months.

“Sadc has also become a victim of Zimbabwe`s electoral debacles in being blinded to a point that the regional bloc is prepared to accept the minimum, in this case, mediocrity in exchange for some semblance of progression.”

The ERC said while Sadc found it prudent to endorse the Zimbabwean polls, the “real tragedy of this election lies with the people of Zimbabwe who yet again have become victims of their own history”.

The regional bloc on Monday endorsed the Zimbabwe July 31 elections that were won by Mugabe and his Zanu PF party, but admitted that the polls had some shortcomings.

The MDC-T, which rejected the outcome of the July 31 polls outcome together with Western countries, said the failure by Sadc to proclaim the polls “fair” vindicated their position that the polls were a “monumental farce.”

Presenting the Sadc Election Observer Mission report in Harare, head of delegation and Tanzanian Foreign minister Bernard Membe chose to describe the election as “generally credible”, but skirted questions about fairness.