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Zimbabwe failed to meet the SADC and AU principles on election observers-Pan African Parliament |
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Blackman Ngoro
Members of the Pan African Parliament sitting near Johannesburg and debating the Pan African Parliament report on the elections in Zimbabwe have condemned the way election observers were registered.
The leader of the delegation to Zimbabwe Marwick Khumalo of Swaziland who read the report to the sitting house said the team condemned Zimbabwe particularly on election observers.
"Zimbabwe failed to meet both the African Union and Sadc principles on election observation"
According to the AU Declaration on the Principles Governing Democratic Elections provides that "Member states should refrain from imposing any fees and /or charges on OAU/AU observers ie registration/accreditation fees etc. and facilitate easy access of observers/monitors to locations of electoral events/activities..."
The report recognised that "SADC Principles and Guidelines Governing Democratic elections provides that accreditation of election observers should be based on non-discriminatory criteria.
According to Khumalo's report Zimbabwe's invitation to international observers was highly controversial for three reasons: Firstly, the fact that Zimbabwean authorities stated that they would only invite friendly countries. Secondly accreditation of the domestic observers was unnecessarily delayed and the accreditation process was indeed cetralized. And thirdly observers were charged US$100 per person for accreditation.
Khumalo's report also decried the fact that contrary to normal practice where election observers are invited and accredited by the Election Management Body (EMB) in Zimbabwe it is the Ministry of Foreign Affairs inviting international observers and the Ministry of Justice accrediting domestic observers.
"All of these ministries could be headed by an actual candidate to the elections and hence raising issues of conflict of interest."
The PAP report recommended that in future fees be removed for all observers from AU organs and invitations be issued with the AU and SADC Electoral Guidelines to which Zimbabwe is a signatory.
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Wednesday, 07 May, 2008
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