Human Rights Watch slams illegitimate election

By Alex Bell
27 June 2008

Human Rights Watch on Friday slammed the run off election in Zimbabwe calling it a “complete sham that should never have happened”.

Zimbabweans were forced to Friday’s poll that saw Robert Mugabe as the single candidate, after MDC leader Morgan Tsvangerai dropped out of the run off last Sunday. This was despite condemnation by global leaders of the “sham” poll and pressure from African leaders for the run off to be postponed until the violent situation had been tabilised.

Tiseke Kasambala from Human Rights Watch told Newsreel on Friday that Mugabe has effectively isolated himself and the country by ignoring calls for the election to be postponed.

She said there are now concerns that Mugabe will try to “hoodwink” African leaders at the AU summit in Egypt, starting on Monday, by trying to “legitimise his presidency”. She said: “AU leaders must not recognise Mugabe’s false claims and must put pressure on him to step down and end the violence in Zimbabwe”.

Kasambala added that the AU is the only group with a semblance of influence over Mugabe, and the pressure on AU leaders needs to increase significantly. African leaders were among the last to publicly condemn their former ally, and have been severely criticised for taking a passive approach to the bloodshed in their neighbouring country.

She said: “Mugabe ignored the African Union’s pleas for a postponement, simply because there was only condemnation. If the AU takes further steps to isolate Zimbabwe, Mugabe will feel the pressure”.

Kasambala also said there are further concerns that the days following the elections will see a surge of retributive violence, and said all possible measures need to be taken to prevent this.