'Release of SEOM close chapter on 2023 election.' You wish! SADC heads have yet to digest the damning report

In a significant move that underscored its independence from CCC leader Mr. Nelson Chamisa and his Western supporters, SADC released its conclusive report on the Zimbabwean elections on Thursday. Notably, this report omitted the biased statements found in the highly discredited initial assessment from the SADC Election Observer Mission (SEOM). With this release, the chapter on Zimbabwe's 2023 election has been effectively closed, leaving the opposition and their Western supporters grasping for alternative narratives," read the article in Bulawayo24.

My immediate response was to laugh! The propaganda war of misinformation and downright threats and blackmail is reaching its crescendo and the Zanu PF regime and its operatives and getting pretty desperate.  I scrolled to the bottom of the article to confirm its source - The Herald. Just as I thought!

The Herald is deliberately misleading the public by attributing the report released last week to SADC, the regional body, when it is the final report of the observer team SEOM.

All the SADC leaders will now read, digest the damning SEOM report. They all know what the Zanu PF government has ignored the damning report and gone ahead with presidential inauguration, swearing in of MPs and senators, appointment of ministers, etc., etc. It is business as usual as far as Zanu PF and its surrogate opposition parties partners are concerned. SADC leaders must now decide whether Zanu PF regime can be let off the hook in the light of the damning SEOM report.

"With this release, the chapter on Zimbabwe's 2023 election has been effectively closed!" That is certainly premature and wishful think! Zanu PF and its apologist are not SADC and, per se, must not be so presumptuous as to bully and dictate to the regional body.

The is no question about it; the SEOM report is damning, alright!

"Conclusion 13.3

The SEOM noted that, as detailed in sections 6 and 7 of this report, some aspects of the Harmonised Elections fell short of the requirements of the Constitution of Zimbabwe, the Electoral Act, and the SADC Principles and Guidelines Governing Democratic Elections (2021)," stated the SEOM report.

The SEOM report gives details of how ZEC had given one feeble excuse after another for failing to produce a verified voters' roll, for example. And thanks to the excellent work of such groups as Team Pachedu, who have already shown the shambolic condition of Zimbabwe's voters' roll. The shambolic condition of the voters' roll was not confined to a select few voters, or affected a few wards or constituencies; this was a wholesale failure affecting the whole country!

"While the final report did raise concerns about certain aspects of the August 23 harmonised elections, such issues are not unique to Zimbabwe," argued The Herald. Yeah right! The arrogant and dismissive statement from a regime that has never respected the ordinary people's right to a meaningful say in the governance of the country!

Of course SEOM report is spot on; Zimbabwe's 23 August 2023 elections "fell short" of Zimbabwe's own constitution, electoral laws and disregarded SADC's own principles and guidelines on elections. How anyone can still pretend such a blatantly flawed and illegal electoral process can ever produce a legitimate result and government beggars belief.

SADC as a regional body, has yet to decide either to do the honourable thing and uphold SEOM's damning report and deny this Zanu PF regime political legitimacy. Or do to the despicable; ignore the damning report and grant the regime legitimacy.