President Robert Mugabe came under unexpected pressure on Tuesday when fellow African leaders agreed on exacting standards for democratic elections in the south of the continent.
Despite a public show of support for Mugabe at the opening of the Southern African Development Community (SADC) summit, the government leaders voted for election regulations and a commitment to a free press with which the Zimbabwean leader will find it difficult to comply.
SADC indicated months ago that the summit, held in Mauritius, would focus on adopting a set of standards for elections for all its member countries.
It was widely seen as a warning to Mugabe that he should conduct Zimbabwe’s forthcoming parliamentary elections, due in March, without the violence and alleged rigging that have marred the past two.
Mugabe tried to mollify his neighbours by proposing limited reforms to Zimbabwe’s electoral system in a bill presented to his Parliament a few weeks ago.
But the incoming SADC chairperson, the Mauritian prime minister Paul Berenger, made it clear that the organisation would not be satisfied with merely cosmetic changes in Zimbabwe.
”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 any other entity, freedom of the press and access to national radio and television, and external and credible observation of the whole electoral process,” Berenger told the assembly, which included Mugabe.
He expressed optimism that all member states would gladly comply with the new election charter.
He then indicated that SADC had been held back by Zimbabwe’s violent elections in 2000 and 2002.
”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 SADC, the European Union and the United States,” he said.
The leaders were expected to agree the details of the election charter before the summit ended on Tuesday night.
Berenger was not alone in pressing Mugabe to reform his ways.
The outgoing chairperson, the Tanzanian president Benjamin Mkapa, held a two-hour private meeting with Mugabe on Monday which SADC insiders said turned into a dressing down of the Zimbabwean president.
This did not stop Mkapa delivering a rousing tirade against western powers in a speech that was widely interpreted as an expression of public support for Mugabe.
But the fact remains that Mkapa will be stepping down soon, as will two other SADC heads of state, the Mozambican president Joaquim Chissano and the Namibian president Sam Nujoma.
Their example of voluntarily leaving office and allowing their successors to be chosen by election is an implicit condemnation of Mugabe’s determination to cling to power no matter what the cost to Zimbabwe’s democracy.
The South African president, Thabo Mbeki, made no public pronouncement on the electoral standards, but it is unlikely that he, the group’s most powerful leader, was not instrumental in designing the trap for Mugabe.
The electoral rules make it clear that if Mugabe does not significantly reform his ways he will not have the support of neighbouring countries which have backed him in the past. – Guardian Unlimited Â