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SADC leaders approve new regional charter
The Financial Gazette (Zimbabwe)
August 19, 2004

http://www.fingaz.co.zw/fingaz/2004/August/August19/6267.shtml

PORT LOUIS - Southern African leaders have approved a new regional charter that specifies how free and fair elections should be conducted in order to guarantee democracy, officials said yesterday.

At a summit on the Indian Ocean island state of Mauritius, all heads of state and government from across the Southern African Development Community (SADC) region gave their blessing to the charter.

They also promoted Madagascar to full SADC member status, but the decision to upgrade its membership will take effect only next year.

At the start of the summit on Monday, Mauritian Prime Minister Paul Berenger became the new SADC chairman and stressed the importance of the charter, making a direct reference to Zimbabwe, whose President Robert Mugabe was present.

"With free and fair elections due in Zimbabwe at the beginning of next year, we can already start preparing for the normalisation of relations between SADC, the European Union and the US," he said.

The Mauritian leader had already explained the charter, saying that "really free and fair elections mean not only an independent electoral commission but also include freedom of assembly and absence of physical harassment by the police or another entity, freedom of the press and access to national radio and television, and external and credible observation of the whole electoral process".

Officials said yesterday that the leaders gathered in the town of Grande Baie had dealt with almost all issues on the agenda during the first day of proceedings, leaving such matters as listening to and approving a new SADC anthem for later.

Before the decision on Madagascar, SADC comprised 13 countries representing at least 212 million people in Angola, Botswana, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Lesotho, Malawi, Mauritius, Mozambique, Namibia, South Africa, Swaziland, Tanzania, Zambia and Zimbabwe.

It was initially set up in 1979 by countries determined to form a joint economic and political front against SA's apartheid regime, but the advent of democracy led to SA's membership and after that newly independent Namibia and the Democratic Republic of Congo.

The SADC includes Swaziland, sub-Saharan Africa's last absolute monarchy, and Angola, where President Eduardo dos Santos has been in power since 1979 and has rejected calls for elections before 2006.

Berenger said SA and Malawi had held elections this year while Botswana, Mozambique and Namibia were due to go to the polls later in the year . They would be followed by Tanzania and Zimbabwe next year.

"This is indeed a clear expression of the region's commitment to democracy," Berenger said in a statement yesterday to mark an official SADC day across the region.

But a secretariat official said there were disagreements over the role of western and other international observers, with most SADC leaders having overruled a minority who believed such observer teams were crucial to establishing an election's credibility. - Sapa-AFP

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