Zim ministry of foreign affairs say EU EOM report on the country's election is misleading and disturbing

Zimbabwe’s ministry of foreign affairs says it is “disturbing and unfortunate” how the EU electoral observation mission (EU EOM) reported on the country’s elections.

During a meeting on Monday in Harare with EU ambassadors accredited to Zimbabwe, acting minister of foreign affairs Amon Murwira said the EU EOM preliminary report was full of “misrepresentations and allegations” and it has “misled the world” about the conduct of Zimbabwe’s elections.

“We find it disturbing and unfortunate that the EU electoral observation mission deliberately issued a sweeping statement full of misrepresentations and allegations. In great measure the preliminary report was not based on the direct observation of the elections, misleading the world on the conduct of our elections. We wish to emphasise election observers are supposed to observe how an election has been conducted and may make recommendations on areas of improvement, which Zimbabwe, as a sovereign state, can accept or reject.

“It is highly unfortunate that the EU EOM made conclusions based on hearsay and on the basis of one-sided information from the opposition, as there appears to be a wholesome adoption of their positions on many issues,” Murwira said. 

“It is unacceptable for an observation mission to arrogate itself the duty to assess our democratic institutions that were constitutionally established. This is gross interference in the internal affairs of a sovereign state and unacceptable,” he added. 

The EU EOM mission was invited by the government to observe the election. It deployed one of the largest observer missions to monitor the elections — a total of 150 observers from 27 EU member states.

On August 27, the EU EOM chief observer Fabio Massimo Castaldo presented their preliminary statement on the August 23 elections in Harare.

“Curtailed rights and lack of level playing field [in the poll was] not always conducive to voters making a free and informed choice. Ultimately, the elections fell short of many regional and international standards, including key principles of equality, universality, transparency and accountability,” Castaldo said.

On Monday, EU EOM deputy chief observer Beata Martin-Rozumilowicz, speaking on X, formerly Twitter, said:  “According to our well-developed [methodology] which we use throughout the world we are not interested in the outcome of any particular election. We are to look on the electoral process as a whole to see the extent to which it matches the regional and international standard that a country has signed up to. We do this independently and we do this impartially of other EU institutions or other organisations working in this space.

“But we do this in a spirt of co-operation and partnership in the country we are deployed to and in this case we offer our honest and transparent assessment in that spirit of partnership to the Zimbabwean people,” said Martin-Rozumilowicz.

Political tensions are rising in Zimbabwe after the disputed election. President Emmerson Mnangagwa, 80, won the election with 52.6% of the vote, while the opposition Citizens’ Coalition for Change (CCC) leader Nelson Chamisa garnered 44%.

Chamisa said the results are a “gigantic fraud” and the CCC would not accept it.

TimesLIVE