News / National
Zanu-PF stops UN election assessment team
14 Apr 2013 at 07:34hrs | Views
President Robert Mugabe's Zanu-PF has stopped a UN assessment team from entering the country to investigate funding the crucial presidential and parliamentary elections to be held soon.
The team, put together by the UN Development Programme, cooled its heels in South Africa this week, unable to get clearance from Harare to travel there to assess whether it could or should fund the polls.
The UN virtually runs elections which it funds.
Finance Minister Tendai Biti, who belongs to Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai's Movement for Democratic Change (MDC), told the cabinet repeatedly last year that Zimbabwe could not afford to fund its elections.
He and Zanu-PF Justice Minister Patrick Chinamasa were then instructed by the cabinet to ask the UN for funding, which they then applied for. The UN said it would see whether it could raise money from donors for elections, but would first have to assess the situation in Zimbabwe, including investigating the quality of electoral infrastructure such as the voters' roll and judging the political climate.
It said it would send a UN Electoral Needs Assessment Mission led by a member of the UN Electoral Assistance Division, Tadjoudine Ali Diabacte, to do the evaluation.
Zimbabwe's next polls will be simultaneous presidential, parliamentary, senate and local government elections which must be held before the end of September.
With just 10 weeks to go before Zimbabwe's inclusive government expires, Zanu-PF spokesman Rugare Gumbo confirmed yesterday that the assessment team had not been cleared to begin work in Zimbabwe.
"My understanding is that the UN assessment team is making all sorts of demands, and as far as we are concerned we cannot meet their demands. I don't know what their demands were," Gumbo said.
Douglas Mwonzora, an MDC spokesman, said Zanu-PF was in such disarray that it was blocking entrance to the UN team to "buy time".
"Zanu-PF does not seem to want elections in spite of all its bravado about elections," he said. "It wants to win by disagreeable means."
The team, put together by the UN Development Programme, cooled its heels in South Africa this week, unable to get clearance from Harare to travel there to assess whether it could or should fund the polls.
The UN virtually runs elections which it funds.
Finance Minister Tendai Biti, who belongs to Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai's Movement for Democratic Change (MDC), told the cabinet repeatedly last year that Zimbabwe could not afford to fund its elections.
He and Zanu-PF Justice Minister Patrick Chinamasa were then instructed by the cabinet to ask the UN for funding, which they then applied for. The UN said it would see whether it could raise money from donors for elections, but would first have to assess the situation in Zimbabwe, including investigating the quality of electoral infrastructure such as the voters' roll and judging the political climate.
It said it would send a UN Electoral Needs Assessment Mission led by a member of the UN Electoral Assistance Division, Tadjoudine Ali Diabacte, to do the evaluation.
Zimbabwe's next polls will be simultaneous presidential, parliamentary, senate and local government elections which must be held before the end of September.
With just 10 weeks to go before Zimbabwe's inclusive government expires, Zanu-PF spokesman Rugare Gumbo confirmed yesterday that the assessment team had not been cleared to begin work in Zimbabwe.
"My understanding is that the UN assessment team is making all sorts of demands, and as far as we are concerned we cannot meet their demands. I don't know what their demands were," Gumbo said.
Douglas Mwonzora, an MDC spokesman, said Zanu-PF was in such disarray that it was blocking entrance to the UN team to "buy time".
"Zanu-PF does not seem to want elections in spite of all its bravado about elections," he said. "It wants to win by disagreeable means."
Source - Reuters
