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This article participates on the following special index pages:
Index of results, reports, press stmts and articles on March 31 2005 General Election - post Mar 30
Namibia's
election chief misleads local public
National Society for Human Rights (NSHR)
April 06,
2005
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the article online
Namibia's National Society
for Human Rights (NSHR) dismisses as highly partisan, self-serving and
misleading utterances by Namibia's Professor Victor Tonchi who headed
the observer mission to Zimbabwe of the Electoral Commission Forum of
Southern African Development Community (SADC) countries. In an interview
with local NBC Radio News this morning, Professor Tonchi declared the
recent election in Zimbabwe as "free and fair" and claimed
that "most Africans" also view the bogus poll as "free
and fair".
While many observers declared
the actual voting to have been generally peaceful, most other observers
are of the view that a climate of fear surrounded the election process
in Zimbabwe since the 2000 parliamentary election, which was also marked
by rampant violence and other serious human rights abuses.
Also prior to last week's
voting there were numerous reports of intimidation and politicization
of food distribution, which were used to force citizens to vote for the
ruling ZANU-PF party. Other reports said that in the rural areas traditional
leaders threatened their subjects with eviction and other forms of coercion,
should they fail to vote ZANU-PF. Draconian security and media laws were
extensively employed to limit the freedoms of assembly and opinion and
expression throughout the country.
Furthermore, a large number
of independent election observers were refused accreditation to monitor
the process and there were 'no go' areas for Opposition political
parties to campaign in certain parts of the country.
"Hence, Professor Tonchi
attempts to create a misleading and fallacious impression that all Africans
support the fraudulent elections or dictatorial rule in Zimbabwe while
'Europeans' do not. However, the time is long past for that
superficial above-the table-'no'-under-the-table-'yes'
Cold war-style ideological dichotomy between the West on the one hand
and the East or something like that, on the other. This is reminiscent
of 1970s when certain Frontline States condemned apartheid South Africa
during the day but traded with them during the night.
It must be pointed out that
nowadays it must be purely a question of human rights and freedoms, which
are universal, interrelated, interdependent and indivisible as envisaged
in the African Charter on Human and Peoples Rights and the New Partnership
for Africa's Development (NEPAD). These instruments commit African governments
to respect human rights and the rule of law as well as other principles
of democracy and good governance" said NSHR chief Phil ya Nangoloh.
Although SADC's observer mission
concluded that the election complied "by and large" with the
group's electoral principles, several individual members of the
same mission from South Africa distanced themselves from the mission's
report, while others absented themselves from releasing such report.
The head of the African Union
Observer Team, Dr. Kwadwo Afari- Gyan, said that the large number of people
who were "assisted" to vote and or those who were turned away
disturbed his team. Dr. Afari-Gyan also called for an immediate investigation
to be launched into the allegations of electoral fraud.
Meanwhile, UN Secretary General
Kofi Annan has also expressed concern over the fairness of Zimbabwe's
parliamentary elections last week. Though pleased that the polling was
conducted peacefully, Annan noted that the voting process did not counter
allegations that the procedure was unfair.
Professor Tonchi also accused
America and Europe of "instilling wrong ideas in the minds of Africans"
and of "a tendency to install new political parties in power"
as well as of being inclined to "regime change". Claiming
that "the people of Zimbabwe support" President Robert Mugabe's
ruling ZANU-PF party, Tonchi alleged that there is political support for
Mugabe in the SADC region.
Several national and international
human rights and other groups have also reported that Zimbabwe did not
comply with SADC election principles.
"But I can see the logic
in Tonchi's position. The good professor is, coincidentally, also
the chairperson of the Electoral Commission of Namibia (ECN), which is
likely to face yet another legal challenge due to the fashion in which
it recently handled the recount of our own elections. In this particular
regard, the Zimbabwean Elections Commission and ECN could be said to be
birds of the same feather flocking together " added ya Nangoloh.
In light of the above NSHR,
calls upon the international community to strengthen existing punitive
sanctions against President Mugabe and his close associates as means to
influence progressive and democratic change in that country. NSHR also
calls upon the immediate release of all political prisoners and discontinuation
of all human rights violations in Zimbabwe.
Note: In case of further
enquiries, please call
P. ya Nangoloh at
Tel: +264 61 236 183 or +264 61 253 447 (office hours) or Cell: +264 811
299 886
email: nshr@iafrica.com.na
www.nshr.org.na
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