Zuma calls for release of presidential election results

By Lance Guma
09 April 2008

The leader of South Africa’s governing ANC party, Jacob Zuma, has criticised the delay by the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission in announcing presidential election results. Marking a departure from Mbeki’s ‘quiet diplomacy’ Zuma said he thought the commission should have announced the results by now. ‘It is not a good thing to keep the nation in suspense. Now the Zimbabwean elections have become an international issue. We all expected that once the elections were finished, results would be announced. Now there are suspicions from the people,’ Zuma said, echoing growing fears of vote tampering by the regime.

Zuma told the SABC it was wrong to keep Zimbabwe and the international community in suspense, adding it did not augur well for the region. The ANC leader met MDC president Morgan Tsvangirai earlier in the week but refused to disclose what they discussed. He described details of the meeting as ‘confidential.’ Nobel peace prize laureate Archbishop Desmond Tutu, joined the chorus of condemnation and called on Mugabe to accept he had lost the election and step down to ease tensions.

Tsvangirai is on a regional push to rally SADC leaders to put pressure on Mugabe’s government to respect the results of the election. After meeting with Zuma, Tsvangirai also held talks with Botswana’s new leader Ian Khama. The MDC leader was also expected to meet Zambian President Levi Mwanawasa and Mozambique’s Armando Guebuza. Only last year the Zambian leader described Zimbabwe as, ‘a sinking titanic.’

The international community has also added its voice. The United Nations, Australia, Britain, United States and the European Union all stood firm in backing calls for a release of the results. ‘There is simply no excuse for them being withheld more than a week after the poll,’ Australian Foreign Minister Stephen Smith said in a statement. He said there were mixed signals from the Zimbabwean government, but all of them added to, ‘a lack of respect for the will of the people.’ Officials from the African Union say they have been unable to contact Mugabe in the last few days.