The European Union on Wednesday made an urgent appeal to the Zimbabwe election commission to publish without delay the official results of the 29 March elections, official sources have said.
In a communiqué issued on Wednesday by the counseling services of member states in Brussels, the European Union hailed the determination of the Zimbabwean people to exercise their fundamental and democratic right to vote and appealed to the e lection commission to publish the official results “to give evidence of its independence and avoid useless speculations”.
The communiqué adds that “this would put an end to the current state of uncertainty and avert the risk of renewed tensions”.
For their part, Euro MPs are pressing for the recognition of the victory of the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC), whose leader Morgan Tsvangirai, sources say , has won the vote, but falls short of an absolute victory of more than half of v alid voted.
A British Euro MP, Geoffrey Van Orden, deplored the absence of a wide range of international observers and journalists and appealed to the Southern African Development Community (SADC) observers to prevail on the Zimbabwe elections commission to “officially proclaim that the MDC has won the elections and that the years of misery and oppression under Mugabe’s rule are now over”.
German Euro MP, Michael Gahler, chairman of the European parliament’s foreign af fairs committee, is exerting pressure on the international community, especially the European Union and the African Union to immediately recognise the victory of Morgan Tvangirai.
For the German Euro MP, the MDC leader won the presidential election.
The European Union has since 2001 targeted sanctions against Zimbabwe, along with a travel ban against 98 leading Zimbabwean figures, including President Robert Mugabe and his wife. Panapress.
