Fwd: [Acholi GG] Zimbabwe's elections

[Otoo Charles]

FYI

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Lokila George <lok...@yahoo.com>
Date: Sun, 4 Aug 2013 22:11:24 -0700 (PDT)
Subject: [Acholi GG] Zimbabwe's elections
To: Acholi Google <acholi-con...@googlegroups.com>, Karamoja
Google <karamoja-g...@googlegroups.com>

Dear Google group members,
Have a look on the our neighboring country's election results. The US
and UK have expressed concern after official results from Zimbabwe's
elections gave President Robert Mugabe a seventh term in office amid
claims of electoral fraud. US Secretary of State John Kerry said the
results did not "represent a credible expression of the people". But
the regional power South Africa has congratulated Mr Mugabe on his
victory. Mr Mugabe, 89, won 61% of the vote, against Prime Minister
Morgan Tsvangirai's 34%. Mr Tsvangirai, though, rejected the vote for
parliament and president as fraudulent and vowed to take legal action.
He said his Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) would no longer work
with Mr Mugabe's Zanu-PF party and boycott government institutions.
The two parties have been in a coalition since 2009, after the last
election sparked widespread violence. Results from this week's
parliamentary election handed the MDC a defeat. It won just 49 seats
compared with Zanu-PF's 158
South Africa issued a statement from President Jacob Zuma extending
"profound congratulations" to Mr Mugabe following the "successful,
harmonised elections".

'Deeply flawed' Major Western groups were not invited to send observer
missions to monitor Wednesday's election. The US has described the
vote as "deeply flawed". "In light of substantial electoral
irregularities reported by domestic
and regional observers, the United States does not believe that the
results represent a credible expression of the will of the Zimbabwean
people," Mr Kerry said. Former colonial power the UK also
expressed "grave concerns" over reports of large numbers of voters being
turned away from polling stations.

MDC party leader Morgan Tsvangirai called the election ''fraudulent
and stolen'' British Foreign Minister William Hague urged a thorough
investigation of all allegations of violations. Meanwhile the European
Union which maintains sanctions on Mr Mugabe and
his senior aides, said it was worried about "alleged irregularities and
reports of incomplete participation" in the election. Monitoring
groups disagreed over the conduct of the election. The most critical
account came from the largest group of monitors, the
Zimbabwe Election Support Network (ZESN), which had 7,000 workers
observing the vote. The organisation said problems with voter
registration had left up to one million people unable to cast their
ballots, mostly in urban areas regarded as MDC strongholds.

On Saturday, one of the nine members of the election commission
resigned over the way the election was conducted. Commissioner
Mkhululi Nyathi said in his resignation letter: "While
throughout the whole process I retained some measure of hope that the
integrity of the whole process could be salvaged along the way, this was
not to be."

Mr Mugabe has been president since 1987. He became prime minister when
Zimbabwe won independence from the UK in 1980.

Thanks,
Ochan George Lokilamoi,

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--
OJOK Charles Otoo,
ARF – Justice & Governance,
NIMES – DCME, Department of Monitoring & Evaluation,
Office of the Prime Minister, Kampala (Uganda)
Tel: 256-772649180
E-mail: cojok...@opm.go.ug or ojogo...@gmail.com