Sadc troika leaders in crisis meeting over Zimbabwe election

SADC troika leaders were last night locked up in a crisis meeting in Pretoria, South Africa to discuss the hurdles affecting Zimbabwe's electoral processes ahead of next week's harmonised polls.

The meeting of the presidents of Mozambique, Tanzania and Angola with President Jacob Zuma, the Sadc appointed facilitator for Zimbabwe, came one day after the African Union Peace and Security Council also met in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.

The Council discussed the pending elections in Zimbabwe, Madagascar, Mali and Togo.

Zuma's international relations advisor, Lindiwe Zulu yesterday confirmed the regional body's Pretoria meeting.

Earlier last week, Zulu said preparations for elections in Zimbabwe were "not looking good".

She said Zuma had called President Robert Mugabe to tell him he was not pleased with the run-up to the poll on July 31.

MDC-T secretary for international affairs, Jameson Timba said although the Troika leaders were meeting on their own, his party made its submissions on Friday to update Sadc on the developments taking place in the country.

Timba, who is also the minister of state in Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai's office, said the key issues raised by his party included the shambolic manner in which last week's special voting exercise for the uniformed forces was conducted and concerns regarding the credibility of the voters roll.

Meanwhile, the AU Peace and Security Council said it looked forward to the successful conducting of free, fair and transparent elections in Zimbabwe.

In a communiqué after its meeting on Friday, the Council said it welcomed the on-going deployment of AU election observers in the country.

It called on all political stakeholders in countries heading for elections to take the necessary steps to conduct peaceful, credible and timely elections in order to reduce political tensions on the continent.

Justice minister, Patrick Chinamasa represented Zimbabwe at the Council meeting.