Africa-Press – Zimbabwe. President Emmerson Mnangagwa has said he does not care if some election observers say the 23 August general elections lack credibility.
This comes after opposition political parties and some civic groups have alleged intimidation, violence, unfair court rulings on sensitive political matters, and the banning of opposition rallies, among other issues.
Addressing thousands of people who were bussed to a ZANU PF rally in Shurugwi on Saturday, Mnangagwa said no one had the right to ask if the elections were free and fair, adding that no country can teach Zimbabwe about democracy. He said:
No one should come and tell us, “Are your elections free, fair and transparent?’ Nonsense!”
… I want to make this clear; no one is qualified to teach us democracy. We were never given our democracy on a silver platter, we spent 16 solid years of an armed struggle for us to become independent.
No one should assume any role to teach us democracy, we fought for it. We acquired it ourselves.
It’s us who have the right to talk about democracy because we fought for it; we have the right to talk about independence because we fought for it, and about sovereignty because we fought for it.
This was our main goal, many of our brothers and sisters perished for it.
It is we who want free and fair elections, we are not doing this to please anybody, and we want it ourselves.
The Government invited observers from the United States and the European Union, but Western powers in the past said Zimbabwe’s elections were neither free nor fair.
Last week, a government-controlled daily paper wrote a story alleging that European Union election observers had bribed journalists in the Midlands province.
But in a statement, European Union Election Observer Mission (EU EOM) Chief Observer Fabio Massimo Castaldo said the report was “defamatory” as the allegations were “unfounded”.
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