President Emmerson Mnangagwa has since hinted that
countries that have in the past invited Zimbabwe to their own plebiscites will be
the only ones allowed to observe the country’s harmonised elections.
Recently, UK Conservative member Lord Goldsmith of Richmond
Park was asked by Labour party member Lord Boateng whether the UK and its
allies were considering sending election observers to Zimbabwe’s polls.
In response, Goldsmith said the UK was working alongside
international partners to prepare support for domestic and international
election observer missions.
“However, as is standard practice, invitations for
observation missions will not be issued by the government of Zimbabwe until the
election date is announced. Alongside a small British embassy Harare electoral
monitoring mission, we hope to see larger electoral missions from the African
Union, Southern African Development Community, European Union, Commonwealth and
other non-governmental organisations,” Goldsmith said.
In his latest weekly column in a State-run newspaper,
Mnangagwa said Zimbabwe would not be dictated on who to invite to observe its
elections.
“The time will soon come when we will not accept that
condescending and even racist view of a pecking order when it comes to
measuring electoral democracy unfolding in our sovereign countries, and which
in any event is meant for our people,”
Mnangagwa said.
In the past international observer missions have ruled
Zimbabwe’s elections as not free and fair. Nwesday
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