1 zimbabwe election support network [zesn] - Nehanda Radio

the election, exhorting the two political actors to go for a Government of National Unity [GNU],
a proposal that was however rejected by ZANU PF arguing that they were only amenable to
negotiations after the poll.
South African ruling ANC president Jacob Zuma had also called for the postponement of
elections saying “the run-off is no longer a solution, you need a political arrangement first and
then elections down the line” while former South African President Nelson Mandela had also
described the run up scenarios as “tragic failure of leadership”. The Government of Botswana
had also issued a threat not to recognize the ZANU PF presidential candidate as the legitimate
leader of Zimbabwe.
The SADC chairperson Levy Mwanawasa also called for the postponement of elections to avert
what he called a “regional catastrophe”, sentiments that were also echoed by the SADC Organ
on Politics, Defence and Security, the UN Security Council and Western governments. Two
members of the Troika organ, Tanzanian President Jakaya Kikwete and King Mswati of
Swaziland had met in Mbabane, Swaziland and issued a communique “that it is the considered
opinion of the organ summit that holding the election under the current circumstances may
undermine the credibility and legitimacy of its outcome”, views which were also shared by Jean
Ping, the Chairman of the African Union Commission who had said “This development
[Tsvangirai’s withdrawal] and the increasing acts of violence in the run-up to the second round
of the presidential election are a matter of grave concern to the Commission of the AU”.
Amid this cacophony of condemnation from regional peers and international civic groups and
the United Nations, the Government of Zimbabwe had pushed ahead with the Election
ridiculing those criticizing the decision to go ahead with the poll as “making idiotic noises that
would not bother us”.
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