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Zim to bar Western observers
12/05/2008 12:11 - (SA)
Harare - Zimbabwe's government will bar Western countries from observing a run-off election unless they remove sanctions against President Robert Mugabe's regime, state media reported on Monday.
Justice Minister Patrick Chinamasa said the government would not succumb to pressure from the opposition to invite certain international observers.
"We will not allow them (Western countries) because they are players," the state-run Herald quoted Chinamasa as saying.
"We will think favourably of them if they lift sanctions. Until they do that, there is no basis to have any relationship with them."
Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) leader Morgan Tsvangirai, who beat Mugabe in the first round of voting has set down a series of conditions for his participation in the run-off.
These include the presence of international peacekeepers, election monitors, free media and an end to violence to ensure a fair vote.
MDC wants peacekeepers
The MDC met with Angola's President Jose Eduardo dos Santos on Saturday to urge him to send regional Southern African Development Community (SADC) peacekeepers for the second round.
"There was a commitment to work within SADC to ensure the commitment that was made at (a SADC head of state's summit at) Mulungushi, namely to make sure if there has to be a run-off it has to be made within security of the law and that means peace and peace monitoring," MDC secretary general Tendai Biti told South African public radio.
Chinamasa accused Tsvangirai of playing the victim, brushing aside his demands.
"Tsvangirai seeks to introduce new rules in a game that has already started. He should stop playing or acting like a spoilt child," Chinamasa said.
"He wants the UN to observe the elections yet the UN did not observe the 1980 elections. We will act in accordance with our electoral laws as negotiated in our SADC dialogue."
No date for the second-round run-off
No Western monitors were allowed to oversee the first ballot and a team from the SADC was widely criticised for giving it a largely clean bill of health.
Results from the first round were delayed by the ZEC for five weeks and no date has been given for the second-round run-off despite the legal requirement for it to take place within 21 days of the first-round results being announced.
Chinamasa has also said Zambian President and SADC chairperson Levy Mwanawasa's failure to call for the lifting of sanctions imposed on Zimbabwe by Britain and its Western allies were a "disappointment" to Zanu-PF.
The political sanctions, imposed by the US and EU after Mugabe allegedly rigged his 2002 re-election, include a travel ban against more than 100 top government officials, as well as the freezing of assets and a ban on arms sales.
- AFP
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Zimbabwe Special Report
