THE SEEMINGLY angry President Emmerson Mnangagwa says he does not care if the Wednesday elections are deemed not free and fair by Western countries.
Mnangagwa’s utterances come as the polls are increasingly
failing the credibility test in the wake of a litany of intimidation, violence
and “dirty” tactics allegations levelled against the ruling Zanu PF party.
Speaking during a rally in Shurugwi on Saturday, Mnangagwa
said no one had the right to ask if the elections were free and fair.
“No one should come and tell us, ‘Are your elections free,
fair and transparent?’ Nonsense!” Mnangagwa said.
Mnangagwa said no country should teach Zimbabwe about democracy.
“I want to make this clear; no one is qualified to teach us
democracy. We were never given our democracy on a silver platter, we spent 16
solid years of an armed struggle for us to become independent.
“No one should assume any role to teach us democracy, we
fought for it. We acquired it ourselves. It’s us who have the right to talk
about democracy because we fought for it; we have the right to talk about
independence because we fought for it, and about sovereignty because we fought
for it,” Mnangagwa said.
“This was our main goal, many of our brothers and sisters
perished for it. It is us who want free and fair elections, we are not doing
this to please anybody, and we want it ourselves.”
Mnangagwa invited observers from the United States and the
European Union, but they have been treated with suspicion in government corridors
since their arrival.
On Friday, Information secretary Ndavaningi Mangwana
released a statement after a government-controlled daily paper wrote a story
alleging that European Union election observers had bribed journalists in the
Midlands province.
“His Excellency was clear that an invitation to observe was
not an invitation to interfere and no foreign power is a stakeholder in
Zimbabwe’s electoral processes. The government will not hesitate to take stern
action against any foreign observers who have chosen to break convention and
dabble in the election processes of our country. For the particular
transgression raised in this statement, the government will take appropriate
action,” Mangwana said.
However, the European Union Election Observer Mission (EU
EOM) dismissed media reports that it was funding local journalists to discredit
the August 23 elections, saying it was a fabrication.
In a statement, EU EOM Chief Observer Fabio Massimo
Castaldo said the report was “defamatory” as the allegations were “unfounded”.
Newsday
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