UN must be part of observer team: Denamrk

Danish state secretary in the Foreign Affairs ministry, Ib Petersen told the media after meeting Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai at his Highlands official residence in Harare today that his country remains supportive of the democratic process in Zimbabwe.

“I understand there will be international observers from Sadc and we think that is necessary that the United Nations is part of the international observers then we can go in and support financially the holding of the elections,” he said.

Zanu (PF) leaders in the Government of National Unity including the Vice President Joice Mujuru have insisted that the EU and the United States will not be invited to observe the elections.

“We have plans to increase the cooperation between Denamrk and Zimbabwe but that is based on the expectations that we see good results as we go along,” Petersen said.

“We have always been in supportive of the democratic process in Zimbabwe and we would like to support free and fair elections.

“The Prime Minister was open in explaining that there are a number of issues that need to be resolved including the new constitution that has to be adopted by parliament and laws that need to be implemented. The election commission also has to be able to do its work,” he said.

Petersen said he had met ministers from the three parties, MDC-T, MDC-N and Zanu (PF).

“From those discussions it is clear that there are issues that the parties in government do not agree on.

“That is normal in any coalition government. Those are political processes and we respect that. What we look at are the policies that come out of that and if they are in line with what we can support then we will continue as a strong partner,” he said.

He said in his discussions with the Joint Monitoring Implementation Committee all parties have been clear that they share the vision of a nonviolent election.

“There will be need put in place mechanisms for monitoring at the local level,” he said.