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Zimbabwe's neighbours endorse Mugabe
AFP
April 03, 2005

http://finance.news.com.au/story/print/0,10119,12743547,00.html

ZIMBABWE'S southern African neighbours have endorsed elections that handed a massive victory to President Robert Mugabe's ruling party, saying they reflected "the will of the people.''

An 11-country observer mission from the Southern African Development Community (SADC) brushed aside opposition complaints of irregularities in a quarter of the constituencies, citing a lack of proof.

"Let me congratulate the people of Zimbabwe for holding a peaceful, credible and well-organised election which we feel reflects the will of the people,'' said Phumzile Mlambo Ngcuka, the South African cabinet minister who led the 55-member mission.

Mlambo Ngcuka said the observer mission had asked the opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) to provide evidence to support their claims of discrepancies in 32 of the 120 constituencies.

"We have received complaints and asked for information. We still don't have it. There is not much more we can do,'' she said.

Mugabe's ruling ZANU-PF party won a two-thirds majority in the elections on Thursday that the opposition slammed as a "massive fraud'', refusing to recognise the outcome.

MDC leader Morgan Tsvangirai told AFP in an interview on Friday that there were discrepancies between the number of voters who cast ballots and the tally from the final result in several constituencies.

"He (Mugabe) is going to do what he wants, this is his private property and for people to even claim that this is a democratic process, when it is so fraudulent, is totally not acceptable,'' Tsvangirai said.

The SADC mission noted problems with media coverage that they said favoured candidates from the ruling Zimbabwe African National Union - Patriotic Front (ZANU-PF).

It also found that some Zimbabweans - 10 per cent according to official figures - had been turned away from the polling stations because their names were not on the voters' roll or they did not provide the proper documents to be able to vote, a shortcoming attributed to voter education.

But Malmbo Ngcuka insisted that "in the end, there was one person, one vote, and it was secret''.peFormer colonial ruler Britain, the United States, Canada and the European Union said the parliamentary elections were not free and fair even though they were peaceful, in contrast to the past two elections that were marred by violence.

South Africa's observer mission also said the elections "reflect the will of the people of Zimbabwe.''

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