adminHe said this during a meeting with civic society organisations here last Friday while answering a question from the floor.
Zimbabwe is scheduled to hold harmonised elections next year amid reports that some Western-funded non-governmental organisations have been calling for the UN to deploy peacekeepers ahead of the polls.
Mr Tsvangirai’s party has previously called for the UN peacekeepers.
“The issue of UN peacekeepers to come and monitor our next elections is very complicated.
“In fact, there has to be justification why the peacekeepers should be deployed in the country ahead of our election.
“I do not think it is possible to have peacekeepers from the UN to come over here. When the UN deploys peacekeepers around the world there has to be a resolution authorising that deployment and in our case there is no basis for that resolution to be passed,” he said.
Mr Tsvangirai said the only outsiders who could be involved in Zimbabwe’s electoral process at a monitoring level were those from Sadc and the African Union.
He said there would be no problem with observers from Sadc and the AU because the organisations were guarantors of the Global Political Agreement.
“I think the only thing we can do is to work closely with Sadc and the AU as the guarantors of the GPA, these can come and monitor our elections,” he said.
In stark contrast to this, Mr Tsvangirai reportedly told a meeting in Zaka on Saturday that UN monitors should be deployed in the country alongside those from Sadc and the AU.
He said he could only take part in the elections if the monitors were deployed.
Mr Tsvangirai told members of civic society that the dates of the next elections had not been agreed to yet.
“There are others who are saying elections shall be held by 31 March next year but the truth of the matter is that no date has been fixed to hold elections as yet,” he said.
“President Mugabe and myself will have to sit down and agree on the date for elections and those who are saying they will be held in March next year are misdirected. What if we decide to hold them in February or June next year?”
President Mugabe has indicated that he intends to call for harmonised elections in the last week of March.
He was responding to a court application by three ex-legislators from Matabeleland who wanted by-elections to be held in their constituencies.
The High Court upheld President Mugabe’s request that the elections be held in the last week of March.
President Mugabe’s spokesperson Mr George Charamba last week said principals had agreed on poll dates.
Mr Tsvangirai told the members of civic society that progress had been made in effecting some reforms to pave way for polls.
He cited bills that have sailed through Parliament, including the Electoral Amendment Bill.
Online Reporter