News / National
'So far so good' says AU monitoring chief
31 Jul 2013 at 12:07hrs | Views
African Union (AU) monitoring chief Olusegun Obasanjo, has found no grounds so far to suggest that Zimbabwe's elections could not be declared credible, an AU official has said.
Western observers have been barred from the elections, leaving the task of independent oversight to 500 regional and 7,000 domestic monitors.
"So far so good," said Obasanjo, a former president of Nigeria, after visiting a polling station in Harare.
The monitors' verdict is crucial to the future of Zimbabwe's economy, which is still struggling with the aftermath of a decade-long slump and hyperinflation
that ended in 2009 when the worthless Zimbabwe dollar was scrapped.
The United States, which has sanctions in place against Mugabe, has questioned the credibility of the poll, pointing to a lack of transparency in its
organisation and pro-Mugabe bias in the state media and partisan security forces.
Tsvangirai urged African monitors not to give the vote the thumbs-up simply because they do not witness bloodshed.
Western observers have been barred from the elections, leaving the task of independent oversight to 500 regional and 7,000 domestic monitors.
"So far so good," said Obasanjo, a former president of Nigeria, after visiting a polling station in Harare.
The monitors' verdict is crucial to the future of Zimbabwe's economy, which is still struggling with the aftermath of a decade-long slump and hyperinflation
that ended in 2009 when the worthless Zimbabwe dollar was scrapped.
The United States, which has sanctions in place against Mugabe, has questioned the credibility of the poll, pointing to a lack of transparency in its
organisation and pro-Mugabe bias in the state media and partisan security forces.
Tsvangirai urged African monitors not to give the vote the thumbs-up simply because they do not witness bloodshed.
Source - Aljazeera
