Prime Minister Paul Berenger of Mauritius opened a summit of the Southern African Development Community (SADC) with an appeal for regional respect for democracy and free elections.
As the new chairperson of SADC, Berenger asked the 13 heads of state and government gathered for the two-day meeting in Grande Baie to sign a charter on democratic and free elections.
”And as this new charter itself reminds us, really free and fair elections mean not only an independent electoral commission but also include freedom of assembly and absence of physical harassment by the police or another entity, freedom of the press and access to national radio and television, and external and credible observation of the whole electoral process,” Berenger said.
”And with free and fair elections due in Zimbabwe at the beginning of next year, we can already start preparing for the normalisation of relations between [the] SADC, the European Union and the United States of America,” he added, in the presence of Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe.
The EU and the US have imposed sanctions on Zimbabwe’s rulers because they do not hold the last elections there to have been free and fair and oppose repressive legislation.
Berenger, who has already told the press that the adoption of a charter on free and democratic elections will be a main item on the SADC agenda, took over the chairpersonship from Tanzania’s President Benjamin Mkapa.
In his address, Mkapa spoke of peace and security problems in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), which is emerging from a war that for four years embroiled half a dozen other African nations that sent troops to back rival sides.
The SADC ”principles and guidelines should be assessed on our terms, and our yardsticks, not on those of others”, Mkapa warned.
”Above all, multiparty democracy and its attendant elections must never be a cover for the destabilisation of our countries.”
The situation in the DRC remains volatile in spite of progress made by the transitional government, Mkapa said, recommending that the SADC should study the issues in order to ensure lasting regional peace and security.
Malawi’s President Bingu wa Mutharika, attending his first SADC summit, addressed the problem of Aids that has hit the region hard, stressing that it is an economic and social crisis as well as a health one. — Sapa-AFP