Africa-Press – Zimbabwe. The UK and its allies are prepared to monitor and observe Zimbabwe’s harmonised elections scheduled to be held sometime between 26 July and 26 August this year, if they are invited to do so.
Lord Goldsmith of Richmond Park, a UK Conservative member, confirmed that they are working with international partners to support election observer missions. This was in response to a query by Lord Boateng, a Labour Party member. Goldsmith said:
However, as is standard practice, invitations for observation missions will not be issued by the government of Zimbabwe until the election date is announced. Alongside a small British embassy Harare electoral monitoring mission, we hope to see larger electoral missions from the African Union, Southern African Development Community, European Union, Commonwealth and other non-governmental organisations.
In 2018, Western observers were permitted to monitor the African nation’s first elections since the ousting of Robert Mugabe. The observers generally praised the peaceful nature of Zimbabwe’s 2018 elections. However, there were concerns about irregularities in the electoral process, including voter intimidation and vote rigging. The European Union’s observation mission noted some improvements but also raised concerns about the independence of the electoral commission and the misuse of state resources during the election campaign.
While the UK says it is ready, President Emmerson Mnangagwa has, however, hinted at a strict selection process for international election observers for the upcoming harmonised elections. Writing in his weekly column in the state-controlled newspaper, The Sunday Mail, Mnangagwa said only those nations who invite Zimbabwe to observe their elections in future will also be invited to do the same.
He said the theory and practice of election observation must be based on equality and reciprocity among nations. The president added that Zimbabwe’s history of colonisation does not justify any false sense of superiority, and there are no current international rules that legitimize such supremacy.
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