Zim election critics do not invalidate results – Hage Geingob

Namibian President Hage Geingob has defended his congratulatory message to Zimbabwe’s incumbent president, Emmerson Mnangagwa, saying those who are “aggrieved” by the outcome of the just-ended Zimbabwean elections should lodge their complaints with the country’s institutions and systems.

This comes after election observers stated that the just-concluded elections were not free and fair.

“President Geingob is conscious that it is the right of Zimbabweans and those who feel aggrieved with the outcome of the elections to seek recourse with the systems and institutions of Zimbabwe,” the Office of the President said yesterday.

One of these institutions is the Southern African Development Community (SADC) electoral observation mission, which has received reports of people being intimidated to vote for a particular party.

“Comments made by electoral observers about aspects of an election, including those that may need improvement, do not invalidate the electoral outcomes in a sovereign country,” Geingob said through his office.

The president said the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission (ZEC) is an authentic body which qualified Mnangagwa as the winner of the election.

“The president has every right to congratulate his counterpart in his capacity as the president of Namibia,” Geingob said.

He said he is a champion of transparency and leads the fight against corruption in Namibia, which he considers to be “the enemy of development”.

Meanwhile, the leader of the Landless People’s Movement (LPM), Bernadus Swartbooi, has referred to the elections as confirmation of vote theft by the ruling Zanu-PF.

Swartbooi yesterday said his party has observed the elections with “disdain and contempt”.

“The elections as per the SADC observer report fell short of the requirements of the Constitution of Zimbabwe, the Electoral Act and the SADC principles and guidelines governing democratic elections in the region,” he said.

The ZEC “dismally” failed to safeguard democracy, he said.

“The police violently arrested members of the Zimbabwe Elections Support Network (ZESN) and the Elections Results Centre on 23 August, and 16 of its staff members, with election support network members being released on about N$3 695 bail each by a magistrate,” Swartbooi said.

He said mobile phones and computers were seized by the police, accusing these people of coordinating an alleged early release of the election results.

SADC observer teams said the voting process was peaceful, but noted issues including delays, the banning of rallies of opposition parties, biased state media coverage and the failure of the electoral commission to give candidates access to the voters’ roll, Swartbooi said.

“Voting stations in urban areas opened four to five hours late, because they knew that in urban areas the opposition party Citizen’s Coalition for Change (CCC) is stronger.

“As such, they went for the voter suppression approach,” he said.

Swartbooi said civil society organisations that were believed to have been conducting lawful non-partisan election observation work were arrested.