The European Union has signed an administrative agreement with Zimbabwe’s government to deploy observers for the country’s elections this year.
Zimbabwe is holding crucial presidential, parliamentary, and municipal council elections on 23 August.
The EU previously observed the 2018 Zimbabwe elections after being banned from sending observer missions by former President Robert Mugabe’s regime in 2002.
On Friday an administrative agreement for the deployment of an EU Election Observation Mission was signed between the EU Ambassador to Zimbabwe, Jobst Von Kirchmann, and acting Foreign Affairs Minister, Amon Murwira.
Murwira said, “The European Union principal is one of the entities invited to observe the upcoming harmonized elections. An invitation was issued by the President of the Republic of Zimbabwe Emmerson Mnangagwa to the European Union to observe from the pre-election stage right through to the election and post-election stages.”
“The EU has accepted the invitation and we are glad there are here to observe elections.”
The EU Ambassador to Zimbabwe says 150 EU observers will be deployed with the first batch starting to arrive next week.
Jobst von Kirchmann said, “The observers stay until the election process is finished. The content of this election observation ranges from analysing political context, this could be in how far citizens can participate in the process. The nature of engagement, the legal framework, the electoral framework, and also the general framework. For example, how is the campaign? how are campaigns done, what is the language in the campaign, all that spelled out in the normal terms of reference of elections observation mission.”
In 2018 EU observers said, while the elections were largely peaceful, they were unhappy with the delay in releasing presidential results and the use by the ruling party of state resources in their campaign.
Source: eNCA
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