Share & more
President Robert Mugabe’s ruling ZANU-PF party has rejected criticism of the government’s refusal to give accreditation to an estimated 200 foreign observers to monitor the parliamentary elections, news reports said on Thursday.
Jonathan Moyo, campaign manager for ZANU-PF was quoted as saying that only Zimbabweans would determine if their elections were free and fair. “There is no requirement that international observers must ensure anything of this sort. It’s the voters that must decide,” Moyo told the BBC. He said that foreign observers had shown bias by criticising election conditions before the weekend’s polls.
The European Union Electoral Observer Group in Zimbabwe and the United States on Wednesday sharply criticised the Zimbabwean government about their decision not to accredit certain international observers. The head of the EU delegation Pierre Schori said in Zimbabwe’s second city Bulawayo on Wednesday: “We have never encountered so many problems with accreditation anywhere in the world.”
This article was produced by IRIN News while it was part of the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs. Please send queries on copyright or liability to the UN. For more information: https://shop.un.org/rights-permissions