Zimbabwe: Hague Calls for Independent Investigations of Zimbabwe Election

By staff writer

Harare – Britain has called for an independent investigation of alleged vote-rigging in Zimbabwe as Robert Mugabe prepared to be signed in for a seventh term as president.

The country's top court declared Mugabe's victory in July's poll as free and fair despite what Foreign Secretary William Hague described as "strong evidence" of illegality.

Hague has expressed concerns following the announcement by the Zimbabwean Constitutional Court that the presidential election result should stand and President Mugabe can be inaugurated and questioned the independence of the judiciary.

In his statement, he said he was concerned that the MDC-T had to withdraw its legal challenge due to concerns over the independence of the judiciary. I strongly believe that an independent investigation of any allegations of election irregularities would be required for the election result to be deemed credible.

“As I have set out previously, I have grave concerns over the conduct of the election, and the flaws highlighted in the South African Development Community (SADC) and African Union (AU) observation missions’ initial assessments. These included the failure to produce the voters roll, the large number of voters who were turned away on Election Day, the very high numbers of extra ballot papers that were printed, as well as the reforms that were not completed as part of the Global Political Agreement (GPA), including to the media environment and security sector,”  said Hague.

Hague said he was disappointed that the election result was endorsed at last weekend’s SADC Summit. He hopes that the SADC and AU final reports will take into account the full impact of the failure to complete the reforms outlined in the GPA, as well as the numerous and serious irregularities highlighted on the day.