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In the village of Nyatsime, outside Harare, EU election observers gather detailed answers to their inquiry – their first mission to Zimbabwe in 16 years since their brutal deportation.
In 2002, the head of the EU electoral mission The vote accelerated the isolation of Zimbabwe while the United States and the EU imposed sanctions on Mugabe and his country. around the world, and that Zimbabwe has drawn attention to Zimbabwe.
Mugabe's Zanu-PF party is still in power – but this election is different on July 30
The former president was ousted in November and his successor, Emmerson Mnangagwa, promised a free release. vote, inviting previously banned observers in an effort to show a renewed commitment to democracy.
The EU mission has a team of more than 100 people, while the Commonwealth has 23 and a joint US-T team from the National Democratic Institute and the International Republican Institute (NDI-IRI) is also present.
In Nyatsime, 30km south of Harare, 48-year-old bricklayer Sharai Jinjika spoke to European observers in uniform about his problems. m registering to vote.
"I waited all day and my child's mother was not registered because she said that her identity card was not in order They told him to have it repaired to Makoni, who is very far away. "
" They would find all kinds of excuses. "
Observers under surveillance
Jinjika indicated that several candidates visited the village during the campaign, sometimes distributing food, adding that it had been relatively peaceful with the exception of a fight between Zanu-PF supporters and the main opposition party of the MDC
. If the country will mark the end of Mugabe 's era by holding a credible election, the teams of observers are under surveillance.
International observer teams file separate badessments of election fairness.
As a result, badysts predict disparities between "Western" observers and teams from the African Union (AU) and the Southern African Development Community (SADC).
These organizations have never been banned from Zimbabwean elections and have more "If the elections go to Zanu-PF, the call for freedom and fairness will sit with AU and SADC, "said Kaajal Ramjathan-Keogh, director of the Johannesburg base. Legal Action Group of the Southern Africa Litigation Center.
The two teams of regional observers have already been criticized for endorsing flawed election results
"It is going to be critical … to know if things are considered free and fair to the disjunction between this that the AU and the SADC say, and what the EU says, "said Piers Pigou, senior researcher at the International Crisis Group.
With such high stakes and polls suggesting a tight race, observers are faced with limited powers and the EU pointed out that she could not play a role of referee.
A deterrent against fraud?
"Everyone must be realistic," AFP Mark Stevens, deputy chief observer of the EU
told AFP: "The elections are not credible Zimbabwe [19659002] "Our job is to observe and report what is happening and express our opinion after."
But observers believe that they can have a deterrent effect on fraud and encourage voters to vote freely.
"The point of having observers is that it increases the cost of trying to manipulate the process," Larry Garber, co-director, told AFP. of the NDI-IRI team
"In the end, it is the people of Zimbabwe to decide the credibility of the election.
Monday's elections are a presidential race between Mnangagwa and MDC leader Nelson Chamisa, as well as parliamentary and local votes.
The EU will give its preliminary badessment two days after the vote, with a report complete published in both m
Back in Nyatsime, Machingauta Titus, 45, a father of four who knits baby clothes on a sewing machine, looks forward to the visibility of observers because she "Helps to build trust."
Gokwe, a nearby fortress of Zanu-PF.
"People were gathered there and told to be aligned on a party," he said. said.
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