Crisis in Zimbabwe Coalition Regional Coordinator, Phillan Zamchiya, confirmed the meeting which he said took place at the Parliament Building in Lilongwe.
“We asked the committee to advise the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the office of the President to be more pro-active as Deputy SADC Chair in assisting Zimbabwe to hold a free and fair election as a major step toward resolving the Zimbabwe crisis,” said Zamchiya.
He said the proposal was accepted by the Chairperson of the Malawi Parliamentary Committee on International Relations.
“On behalf of the committee, the Chairperson, Honourable Felix Njawala, appreciated our regional efforts and said, ‘the message is very clear, you need democratic values, and we have understood what you need clearly. As the members of the committee, we will do whatever we can to help Zimbabwe’,” said Zamchiya.
Crisis in Zimbabwe Coalition is a coalition of more than 350 civil society groups.
Zamchiya said Njawala emphasised on the need for a smooth transition toward democratisation in Zimbabwe.
“In concrete terms the committee is going to table a report to Parliament, and to the Malawi SADC committee. They also committed to advise the Minister of Foreign Affairs to table our asks at the SADC Council of Ministers so that the regional bloc can address issues of rigging, violence, intimidation, harassment and military involvement in the electoral processes preferably through an extraordinary SADC summit on the Zimbabwe Election,” said Zamchiya.
The move to engage the Malawian government comes following a series of arrests and harassment of civil society leaders in Zimbabwe.
Non-governmental organisations like ZimRights, Counselling Services Unit, Community Tolerance and Development, Zimbabwe Peace Project have had their leaders intimidated, arrested or harassed as the country braces for elections scheduled for this year.
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