Tsvangirai seek international support on elections

Speaking at the World Justice Forum in Barcelona Premier Morgan Tsvangirai on Wednesday called for the world to support Zimbabwe as it embarks on a process to ensure free and fair elections in the country after disputed polls in 2008 led to the formation of the coalition government in 2009.

He said the country has been facing stumbling blocks to credible polls in the country as security chiefs are still making statements that they will not support any democratically elected leader who is not President Robert Mugabe or someone who does not have liberation war credentials.

Tsvangirai claims that over 500 people were murdered by Zanu-PF in the deadly political violence after he won the first round of the presidential vote in 2008. Tsvangirai chickened out of the presidential run-off citing the violence rendering the elections inconclusive to borrow from Jonathan Moyo's analogy.

Tsvangirai said the date for the next elections is going to be defined by a process after all key areas of the election roadmap which include the contentious security sector reforms are done. The Global Political Agreement political parties in the country meet early next month to finish the roadmap to be submitted before the full SADC summit in August.