Britain says elections won’t be free and fair

 In an interview, the British High Commissioner to South Africa, Paul Boateng, said though London would not use external intervention in Zimbabwe, he said his country was not convinced that the so-called positive progress was taking place in the soutern African nation.
 He said whilst it was clear that the Zimbabwe problem would be resolved by Zimbabweans, constitutional and electoral reforms needed to be addressed as a matter of urgency before there could be free and fair elections next year.
 Boateng pointed out that Britain was fully behind South African President, Thabo Mbeki’s mediation effort, but cast a dark cloud of uncertainty over the ruling party’s commitment following  glaring evidence of human rights abuses, police partisanship and the use of food as weapon in order to win elections.
 “Britain would like to see Zimbabwe’s general election next year being conducted freely and fairly. But our fears are that election rigging might not be ruled out. Britain would like to see Zimbabwean’s economy improve,” said Boateng.
 He said there were fears that Harare might continue using food as weapon to win next year’s election in a development that would render the whole election process not free and fair.
 Boateng also took the opportunity to appeal to the heads of the Southern African Development Community (SADC) region to support efforts being made by president Mbeki to broker peace in the current stand-off between MDC and the ruling Zanu (PF).
 Turning to the sour relations between Britain and Zimbabwe, Boateng said the problem started when Harare messed around its economic policies due to political greediness. He said President Mugabe’s thirst for power was the root problem.
Political and economic instability is the root cause of the stand-off between Zimbabwe and Britain. Well, there is no external intervention by Britain, but it has to be clear that both political and economic instabilty in Zimbabwe were the root causes of the current stand-off, and nothing else,” said Boateng.