Harare– Amid a severe economic crisis that is proving to be likely insolvable, the European Union (EU) has added salt-on-wound on President Mnangagwa’s led administration by releasing an election report that discredits the legitimacy of the current government’s election into power.
Yesterday the EU Observer Mission that monitored the 2018 Harmonised Election released it’s final report in which it disqualified the plebiscite from being credible, free and fair.
The Observer Mission noted,
“Notably, major shortcomings in the pre-election environment impacted on the free expression of the will of electors, state resources were misused in favour of the incumbent and coverage by state media was heavily biased in favour of the ruling party.”
The report also says the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission (ZEC) lacked full independence and appeared to not always act in an impartial manner.
“The final results as announced by the Electoral Commission contained numerous errors and lacked adequate trace-ability, transparency and verifiability”, the report reads.
“Finally, the restrictions on political freedoms, the excessive use of force by security forces and abuses of human rights in the post-election period undermined the corresponding positive aspects during the pre-election campaign. As such, many aspects of the 2018 elections in Zimbabwe failed to meet international standards,” it adds.
Though having noted some positive aspects of the election, the Observer Mission say these were overshadowed by the negatives.
“The tragic deaths of protestors on 1 August, as a result of excessive use of force by security forces, and the subsequent abuses of human and political rights of members of the opposition further marred the perception of the electoral context,” the report concludes.
This comes at the back of an economic comatose that has seen a shortage of basic commodities, massive price hikes and skyrocketing inflation.
The developments obscure any prospects of the nation’s re-engagement with the international community as has been reiterated by President Mnangagwa that it is the only solution to restoring investor confidence and reviving the economy.
