New Zealand denounces Zimbabwe election

New Zealand today denounced Zimbabwe’s latest general election as neither free nor fair as the African country counted votes from the poll held yesterday.

Acting Foreign Minister Marian Hobbs said that New Zealand – a long-time critic of Zimbabwe’s President Robert Mugabe – joined other countries in calling for a return to accountable, democratic governance in the African nation.

“I don’t consider the elections … either free or fair,” she said. “There is a culture of fear and intimidation throughout the country, and the electoral playing field in Zimbabwe remains tilted in favour of the ruling Zanu-PF party.”

New Zealand’s election observer team had reported that this election took place with less violence than before, and said that the opposition had some access to public media.

But Hobbs, who was standing in for Foreign Minister Phil Goff while he travelled abroad, said that Zimbabwe’s political and economic climate, along with its human rights situation, showed little sign of improvement.

“New Zealand has consistently condemned the abuses of the Mugabe government, a regime that we do not recognise as having a legitimate democratic mandate,” she said.

Zimbabwe was suspended from all decision-making councils of the 54-nation Commonwealth group of Britain and its former colonies after Mugabe’s government was accused of intimidation and vote-rigging in the March 2002 presidential elections, which Mugabe narrowly won.

Before the December 2003 Commonwealth Heads of Government meeting in Nigeria, Goff said he would not attend if Mugabe was present.

“It would not be my desire to go to meetings to rub shoulders with somebody who has blood on their hands in terms of the slaughter of innocent people, black and white, in Zimbabwe and the suppression of long-held and cherished rights,” Goff said then.

Mugabe did not attend the meeting.