Sources who attended briefings with election observer teams from the SADC region, African Union (AU) and other bodies told The Zimbabwean on Sunday that the friendly observers might not give a thumbs to the elections as expected.
There seems to be some desire within the African and SADC communities to have the true will of the Zimbabwean electorate prevail.
In another surprise shift, the South African government observer team had already expressed was believed to have raised concerns over a number of thorny issues before yesterday’s voting and might pass a negative verdict on the elections.
MDC (Tsvangirai) executive member and House of Assembly candidate for Kambuzuma constituency, Willas Madzimure, made presentations to observer teams in Harare on behalf of the party’s secretary general, Tendai Biti.
The observer teams showed concern over issues that are not clear, including the issue of postal ballots and excess ballot papers, Madzimure said. We told them of our fears about plans to rig the elections, which they agree wouldn’t be acceptable.
The Zimbabwe Electoral Commission (ZEC) was also pressed to explain several issues by observers. This paper has confidentially heard that the SA and SADC observer teams had already condemned the controversy surrounding the voters’ roll and number of ballots.
The issues of the voters roll have not been adequately addressed by the electoral commission and it appears unwilling to come out in the open on some aspects, an SA diplomat said on condition of anonymity.
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