US: Zim vote a 'non-event'
2005-11-29 08:23
Special Report
Zimbabwe’s PM Morgan Tsvangirai has called for openness in the country’s nascent diamond trade, getting underway after the lifting of a global ban over rights abuses.
A dusty road leads to the village of Wedza, where veterans of Zimbabwe's liberation war eke out a meagre living on their farm cooperative, which after a promising start now brings only despair.
Washington - The United States on Monday dismissed as a "non-event" Zimbabwe's election for a new upper house of parliament that produced a huge majority for the party of President Robert Mugabe.
McCormack said: "This was an election that was designed to elect people to an institution that has truly little legal significance.
"It was created by Mr Mugabe a few months ago as, in our view, a source of patronage for ruling party politicians.
"So in terms of democracy - and we talk about elections as being part of democracy - this was really a non-event."
Exercise in democracy
Zimbabwe officials said Mugabe's Zimbabwe African National Union-Patriotic Front (Zanu-PF) won 86% of the 50 contested seats in an election that drew less than 30% turnout in most constituencies.
McCormack said judging by the turnout, "it doesn't seem as though the Zimbabwean people took these elections very seriously as well, as a real exercise in democracy".
Washington had pressed Zimbabwe to reform and had frozen the assets here of Mugabe and other politicians considered to be blocking the process.
It expanded the list last week to 128 people, from an original 77.
- AFP