Zimbabwe’s elections held on Wednesday were a “sham” and the international community “must reevaluate all facets of its relationship” with the Zimbabwe government, a top United States senator said on Friday.
The poll has been condemned by observers from SADC, the African Union and the European Union as falling short of regional and international standards on democratic elections.
Observers identified voter intimidation, vote suppression, a partisan judiciary and incompetence by the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission as some of the issues undermining the fairness of the election.
“The 2023 elections in Zimbabwe were a sham. The government weaponised the judiciary, silenced the opposition, manipulated the accreditation of observers, and created an unfair pre-election environment,” Jim Risch, the ranking member on the US Senate Foreign Relations Committee, said in a statement.
He said on August 23 and 24, the Zimbabwe government “further sabotaged the electoral process by delaying polling station openings, intimidating voters, and unlawfully detaining accredited observers.”
“What occurred was not an exercise in democracy. The people of Zimbabwe should continue to advocate for their constitutional right to choose their leaders freely without fear and use peaceful means to voice their discontent with the electoral process,” he said.
He called on the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission to complete the vote count “transparently and honestly” while demanding the release of 41 independent election monitors arrested for conducting parallel vote tabulation using publicly released data.
President Emmerson Mnangagwa and senior regime figures are already under a United States travel ban and asset freeze order. Now Risch is calling for a re-examination of the measures in response to the disputed election.
“The U.S. government and the international community must remain alert, continue to shine a light on the severe violations of Zimbabwe’s electoral law, and act to prevent further state violence against Zimbabweans,” he said.
“Finally, we must reevaluate all facets of our relationship with a Zimbabwean government that ignores its people’s will and flouts its laws through acts of violence, looting, and impunity.”
In a separate statement, the United States embassy in Harare said Zimbabweans “faced significant obstacles and delays” on election day.
“While the election days were predominantly peaceful, the electoral process thus far did not meet many regional and international standards,” the embassy said.
Source Bulawayo24
