On the surface, South Africa’s assumption of the presidency of the United Nations Security Council earlier this month has no relevance for the Zimbabwe electoral crisis. Desperate Zimbabweans could call for help from the UN, but this call comes when South Africa is gatekeeper at the Security Council.
Zimbabweans woke up on Monday morning still not knowing if a new future had dawned on the country plagued by political and economic strife. On Sunday night, the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission headquarters — called the national command centre — was deserted while the commission insisted it was verifying votes.
Zimbabwe’s main opposition leader and presidential candidate in the March 29 general elections said on Thursday that the voters’ register is filled with tens of thousands of ghost voters. Morgan Tsvangirai, leader of the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC), also said that the voters’ roll was in a shambles and threatened to pull out of the elections.