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Southern African Leaders Urge Zimbabwe to Postpone Election
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Race
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| Contributor | IndyGeorgia |
| Last Edited | IndyGeorgia Jun 17, 2013 01:16pm |
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| Category | News |
| Author | Reuters |
| News Date | Monday, June 17, 2013 07:15:00 PM UTC0:0 |
| Description | MAPUTO — Southern African leaders on Saturday told Zimbabwe to ask its courts to extend a July 31 deadline to hold elections, amid high tension between President Robert Mugabe and Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai over the timing of the vote.
The summit of the 15-nation Southern African Development Community (SADC) in the Mozambican capital came two days after Mugabe declared the election day, a date immediately rejected by Tsvangirai, his partner in coalition and main political rival.
Mugabe had argued he was following an order from the Constitutional Court to hold the election by the end of July, but Tsvangirai said it was too soon to allow the reforms of the media and security forces required for a free and fair vote.
"The summit acknowledged the ruling of the constitutional court on the election date and it will be respected," Tomaz Salomao, Secretary General of SADC, said after the one-day meeting. "What the summit recommended was, in recognizing that there was a need for more time, that the government of Zimbabwe engage the constitutional court to ask for more time beyond the deadline of July 31."
SADC leaders had earlier feared that hurrying the elections would increase the chances of a disputed result and violence.
In 2008 hundreds of Zimbabweans, mostly Tsvangirai's supporters, were beaten and killed, creating a flood of refugees into neighboring countries.
Finance Minister Tendai Biti, who is also secretary general of Tsvangirai's Movement for Democratic Change party, said SADC had "ordered a return to constitutionalism."
"We Zimbabweans want an election yesterday. However, it must be legitimate and credible," Biti said. |
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