SA team to observe Zimbabwe recount
Bathandwa Mbola
18 April 2008
A South African delegation is to travel to Zimbabwe to join a Southern African Development Community (SADC) team in observing a vote recount in the country.
Ballots from 23 constituencies in the country's parliamentary and presidential elections will be recounted on Saturday.
The Zimbabwean Electoral Commission (ZEC) has not released the presidential results more than two weeks after the 29 March poll.
South African Deputy Foreign Minister Aziz Pahad told reporters in Pretoria on Thursday that President Thabo Mbeki's facilitation team would also be travelling to Zimbabwe.
The team was expected to interact with the ZEC "to see how the release of the poll results can be speeded up," Pahad said.
The South African government has expressed great concern at the delayed release of election results in Zimbabwe.
Speaking to journalists in Pretoria on Thursday after Wednesday's Cabinet meeting, Government Spokesperson Themba Maseko said the Cabinet had endorsed the SADC's call for the verification and release of all results as soon as possible.
Provincial and Local Government Minister Sydney Mufamadi, briefing journalists in Pretoria on Tuesday following an extraordinary SADC summit meeting in Zambia on the weekend, said the SADC had "appealed to concerned parties to exercise restraint and refrain from inflaming the political situation in Zimbabwe.
"They also called on electoral authorities to release outstanding results expeditiously, and ensure that all concerns regarding the results are dealt with in accordance with the laws governing the electoral process."
Source: BuaNews
