|
Back to Index
This article participates on the following special index pages:
2008 harmonised elections - Index of articles
UK
calls for monitoring of Zimbabwe poll
Reuters
February 20, 2008
http://africa.reuters.com/top/news/usnBAN025373.html
London - Britain
called on Tuesday for effective international monitoring of next
month's Zimbabwean elections, saying conditions for the poll were
"far from free and fair".
Zimbabwean President
Robert Mugabe has announced presidential, parliamentary and municipal
elections for March 29 and is seeking another five-year term to
extend his 28-year rule of the once-prosperous southern African
country.
"Zimbabwe is suffering
from an economic, humanitarian and political crisis for which President
Mugabe is directly responsible," British Foreign Secretary
David Miliband said.
"The conditions
for it (the election) are far from free and fair. We are pressing
for effective international monitoring and for states in the region
to require the election to meet international standards...,"
he told parliament.
The opposition is concerned
the elections will not be free. Mugabe has been widely accused of
rigging the last three major elections and of using security forces
to quell dissent.
Mugabe faces
a challenge
from Simba Makoni, a former ally who is running for president as
an independent and who has vowed to make the crumbling economy the
campaign's focus.
Critics say government
mismanagement has plunged the country into a crisis marked by soaring
poverty, widespread malnutrition and chronic food and fuel shortages.
Mugabe says the problems
are the result of sabotage by Western powers opposed to his policy
of seizing white-owned farms and redistributing the land to blacks.
Relations between Zimbabwe and former colonial power Britain have
been fraught.
Please credit www.kubatana.net if you make use of material from this website.
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons License unless stated otherwise.
TOP
|
