Chinamasa blocks UN election assessment team

The fact-finding mission was scheduled to visit Zimbabwe to assess requirements for general elections expected this year, after the Finance Minister Tendai Biti wrote a letter appealing for financial assistance.

But it has now emerged that ZANU PF Justice Minister Patrick Chinamasa wrote a counter letter blocking the visit, because his party is unhappy with the UN’s request to conduct a needs assessment first before agreeing to help fundraise the elections.

The mission, said to be currently stuck in Johannesburg, wants to talk to various stakeholders including civil society groups who have cited rights violations and have been calling for the implementation of major reforms before elections.

Biti and Chinamasa were not reachable for comment. But a senior government source said while the two ministers had been tasked to source much needed funds for the elections, Chinamasa went “behind Biti’s back” and wrote the letter to the UN saying Zimbabwe will not accept assistance that came with conditions.

“ZANU PF just wants money without any conditions. They just want to scuttle the UNDP funding mechanism. SADC is fully appraised of the matter and aware of who is blocking what,” the source said.

The two ministers were due to meet President Robert Mugabe to resolve the matter, even though analysts say it is highly unlikely that Chinamasa was acting without getting the green light from his superiors in ZANU PF.

Piers Pigou the International Crisis Group’s Southern Africa Project Director said this raises some profound questions about ZANU PF’s intentions, when they had agreed to this mission in the first place.

“Understandably this is an extremely sensitive issue and I imagine what will be happening now is that there will be a process to negotiate some kind of solution or compromise,” Pigou told SW Radio Africa.

“And that in itself will be interesting. None of us have seen what the UN’s terms of reference are. If there is an agreement, will it be based on a compromise that dilutes those terms of reference further than they have already been diluted?” Pigou asked.

Visiting state secretary of the Danish Foreign Affairs ministry, Ib Petersen, revealed this week that his government is ready to join other international donors, after the UN concluded its assessment of Zimbabwe’s election requirements. He also urged Zimbabwean authorities to make an effort to look for election funding from the country’s own resources. – SW Radio Africa