HARARE – The African Union observer mission has added voice in condemning Friday’s presidential election in which President Robert Mugabe was declared winner saying the electoral process fell short of accepted AU standards.
The mission noted the violence which preceded the run up to the presidential and parliamentary by election polls.
Former president of Sierra Leone Dr Ahmad Tejan Kabbah who headed the mission said fear of violence deterred popular participation in the electoral process despite the peaceful environment that prevailed on the polling day.
The AU interim statement was rather lukewarm and did not out rightly lambast unfair conditions that worked against the opposition resulting in the withdrawal of its candidate Morgan Tsvangirai.
Tsvangirai’s withdrawal was noted as a concern by the AU mission but did not elaborate on the concerns of the opposition.
“The African Union Mission noted with concern the withdrawal of the MDC candidate on the 22nd of June 2008. This unexpected development led the AU mission to undertake a number of contacts with the judiciary authorities of Zimbabwe to seek clarification of the legal implications of the withdrawal,” Dr Kabbah said.
On affording equal access to the media, the mission confirmed lack of equal access to the public media.
The opposition was not given any access to the public media and only appeared in bad light to prop up the image of the ruling party ZANU PF.
The chairperson of the Electoral Commission of Uganda Dr Bachu Kiggundu who was part of the AU delegation told journalists that the election process was not free of violence in the run up to the polling day.
“An election process should be free of violence not only on polling day but throughout the preceding period. Your country (Zimbabwe) fell short of the requirements,” Dr Kiggundu said.
On a sad note, a member of the AU mission Beranu Abebe from Ethiopia collapsed on Monday morning and died upon admission to hospital.
Source: ZimEye
10 thoughts on “AU says Zimbabwe election falls short of standards”
AU kkkk…union of crucks,the name AU seems to me a joke.I dont have a slight of respect for them.they are bunch of thieves and self serving pigs.as far as USA and other western countries is concerned,they are bunch of hipocrats,they dont give a damn for African poeple.the hell with them.
Where were the so called AU observers when more than 1000 pepole shot in the head by snipers and more than 20,000 jailed in prison and concenteration camp in Ethiopia? or perhaps they may not consider our case like Zimbabwe.I don’t see any difference b/n Zimbabwe and Ethiopia.I remeber the so called observer of AU gave a blessing to election office in Ethiopia by saying as the election was good and with no cheating.
Who is AU? A bunch of dictators eating their own people flesh! Can anyone more than two countries that held fair election and respect the law? I am reserving the two spots for Ghana (a true democracy) any the other in case there is one more.
AU cannot openly condemn Mughabe. Why? because they are all Mughabe’s of their own. Start from Meles Zenawi from whom Mughabe learned how to rig votes and crack down the opposition…
Aha! I couldn’t wait to see an article about Zimbabwe and the AU reaction on your web page.
The Europeans and westerners were expecting a reaction from the AU meeting. Did they expect these bunch of tyrants to condemn their friend? Their hero? Are they fools… who, amongst the African kings, is pointing finger on Mugabe. What did he do different? He did the “normal” thing. The host, Mubarek did it; Meles did it; etc. Election is a constitutional right of the people. That is why they are doing the election on time. However, the process and the outcome is left to the will of the leaders. If they don’t like it, that is the end of it and no body can do anything about it. They can wipe out the entire oponent group if needed.
I WISH there will be a United Nations army, or some super power that will regulate this type of crime. When tyrant rulers abuse their power, there should be someway to stop them. If no body can do anything about this, what the use of talking about it?
In terms of conducting fair elections and practising real rule of law, there is no difference between Zimbabwe and Ethiopia other than that Western countries are close to Meles Zenawe for their own interests and therefore cover his crimes up while they are eager to expose Mugabe’s excesses and misrule.
As much as I hate to say this about our African brothers and sisters the AU is nothing more than an extension of the US state department policy, the majority of African “leaders” owe their power to their masters in the west, they obey one of the following three powers who have the same agenda for Africa, the US, Great Britain and France, if what happens in any given country in Africa is against the interests of these three colonial powers they will do everything within their power to destroy that country until that country’s “leaderhsip” obeys to their commands completely. They could care less about Zimbabwe if there was no economic interest for them, 90% of the arable land that grows cash crops is owned by British nationals in Zimbabwe, that land was supposed to be given back to Zimbabweans according to the Blair house agreement, when the time came to implement that agreement the British government blinked and started financing so called opposition parties to overthrow Mugabe.
What the African puppets are saying is not their idea, those are ideas given to them by their masters, that is why they are accusing whoever doesn’t agree with the colonial powers interests a dictator, they can’t call Melles Zenawi a dictator because he serves their interests, plain and simple. They call president Isaias Afewerki a dictator because he doesn’t bow to their commands, my Ethiopian brothers and sisters don’t get fooled by the so called western democracy, what the Ethiopian people need are dedicated leaders who work for to improve the standard of living of their people not so called democrats who hold sham elections every so many years. Western democracy never worked in Africa and it never will, that is a fact that any Ethiopian in the diaspora has to understand and stay away from.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/africa/7483060.stm
Mugabe aide tells West: ‘Go hang’
What standards? Who set up that measuring stick? The US? The UK? La France? You got to be kidding me. As an African, I am embarrassed by this bunch of baboons that are playing games with the African masses. These people whether under the old OAU or now the equally defunct AU have never represented the wishes of the African people and chances are they probably won’t in the foreseeable future.
As long as these “hodams”:
1) Don’t look further than the shadow of their nose
2) Place the interest of the Africans beyond that of theirs’
3) Quit being subservient of and be blind servant the West and be able to call “a spade” – a spade, we will continue to have the same sad story of inappropriate statements and meaningless declarations driven strictly to prolong their stay in power and compete for the most loyal stooge of the Americans!
how could the well known dictators and killers like kenyia’s and egpyt’s leaders considered ato mugabe as a dicator. how many kenyians were being killed by this bloody dictators’s supporters
Tazabi,
Your commentary wishes that some hardboned external super power needs to intervene and enforce the rules and out comes of an election or elections in a given country. This hardly works.
The best way is for the internal and external oppositions both armed and unarmed form unity within diversity in a new and sustainable manners and challenge the discredited dictators by themselves for their own people and the country as a whole.
Those who are/were enslaved and oppressed needs to fight for their rights which no one should have taken away from them even to begin with. After all they are not perishable goose eggs and afraid of being destroyed by the forces of slight of seasonal winds.
The strong external power can only surve as a back up when they see that the opposition is credible, tolerant, motivated and is ready not to cheat and sing but to compete, win and keep the victory thuse enthrusted by all means, say for example some what if not exactly like that of Odinga of Kenya.
Folks: The Ethiopian dictatorship is not any strong at all, but the opposition is very weak and divided. That is the problem. So please try to fix the pot from where it is leaking, rather than keep patching up the pot at the points where it is intact.