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Senior Reporter
ZANU-PF has welcomed Sadc’s final report on Zimbabwe’s 31 July harmonised elections, in which the regional bloc endorsed the polls as free, fair, peaceful and credible.In an interview yesterday, Zanu-PF spokesperson, Cde Rugare Gumbo applauded Sadc, saying its report was well-balanced.
“We are in total agreement with the Sadc report on the harmonised elections. It was well-balanced and the endorsement of the polls also vindicate that the elections were conducted in a peaceful, free, fair and credible manner.
“We are happy with the report as it also urges Zimbabweans to unite and work together. It also stated that there was a need for the entire region to join hands in calling for the lifting of sanctions imposed on us by the West,” he said.
Cde Gumbo also commended Sadc for urging neighbouring countries in the region to desist from allowing pirate radio stations to use their territories as bases for broadcasting.
“Sadc also recommended that pirate media should end their operations forthwith in Zimbabwe. This is a commendable move by Sadc as it also called on countries in the region not to allow their territories to be used as bases for pirate radio stations,” he said.
Sadc issued its final and comprehensive report on the 31 July harmonised elections on Monday in which the regional bloc upheld the polls as free, fair, peaceful and credible and a true reflection of the will of the people of Zimbabwe.
In the report, head of the Sadc Election Observer Mission to Zimbabwe, Mr Bernard Membe, who is also Tanzanian Foreign Affairs Minister, said the 14-member bloc concluded that the election was a true reflection of the will of Zimbabweans, as its positives outweighed the few discrepancies.
Mr Membe said President Mugabe and Zanu-PF won the elections and urged opposition parties to accept defeat. President Mugabe was declared the winner of the 31 July harmonised election after polling 61, 09 percent of the vote that also saw Zanu-PF surpassing a two-thirds parliamentary majority.
His closest rival MDC-T leader, Mr Tsvangirai got 33,94 percent and immediately challenged the result in the Constitutional Court.
Mr Tsvangirai later withdrew his case citing the failure by the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission (Zec) to release voting material used in the elections as well as the courts decision to bar testimony and cross examination of witnesses as some of the reasons behind his decision.
He went on to lose the case in court. The polls, which were monitored by close to 600 observers from Sadc member countries, were also endorsed by Comesa and AU observers.
The United Nations Secretary General Mr Ban Ki-Moon also endorsed the polls. The Sadc election monitoring contingent had a huge network that managed to cover all the 210 constituencies between 15 and 31 July.
MDC-T spokesperson Mr Douglas Mwonzora disputed the Sadc report, arguing that the elections were allegedly marred by irregularities.
“MDC-T fundamentally disagrees with the Sadc report on the harmonised elections. The elections were absolutely not fair at all and Sadc correctly found out that but they deliberately opted to ignore in their report that there were so many irregularities,” he said.
Online Reporter