JAMES McGEE . . . there's really nothing that we can do here to stop these elections

HARARE – United States ambassador to Zimbabwe James McGee on Wednesday accused President Robert Mugabe’s government of planning to force people to vote in tomorrow’s presidential run-off election which opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai is boycotting.

Tsvangirai withdrew from Friday’s election saying a free and fair vote is impossible because of political violence that he said had killed 86 members of his Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) party and displaced 200 000 others.

McGee said the US mission in Harare had received information that Mugabe’s government planned to force voters out to the polls in its bid to portray Friday’s one-man race as a credible election.

The US representative said in a statement that Mugabe’s ruling ZANU PF party had continued “in full campaign mode" despite Tsvangirai's decision to withdraw from the vote after weeks of violent attacks and intimidation against MDC supporters.

The opposition party’s supporters have continued to be subjected to political violence, said McGee.

"We've received reports that ZANU PF will force people to vote on Friday and also take action against those who refuse to vote. So, they are saying 'we want an election at all costs. We want to validate Mugabe's victory here,'" McGee said. "There's really nothing that we can do here in the international community to stop these elections."

Zimbabwe’s deputy information minister Bright Matonga accused McGee – who has been an outspoken critic of Mugabe’s controversial rule – of interfering in the domestic affairs of the southern African country contrary to his brief as a diplomat.

“We have no comment on McGee’s outbursts,” Matonga said. “We want to reiterate for the umpteenth time that he should not interfere with the politics of Zimbabwe. We will soon take action against him.”

Mugabe has said Friday’s vote will go ahead, ignoring calls by the United Nations Security Council and some southern African leaders to call off the poll and start negotiations with the opposition for a government of national unity.

Speaking earlier on Wednesday, US Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs Jendayi Frazer said that Washington would not recognise the result of the June 27 vote because Tsvangirai and his MDC party had been violently forced out of the running.

While the Southern African Development Community (SADC) discussed Zimbabwe at an emergency summit in Swaziland as pressure mounted on Mugabe’s government from within and outside Africa.

McGee urged the 500 election observers from the SADC and the African Union to remain in Zimbabwe to be at least “eyes on the ground for the people of Zimbabwe”.

The Harare administration banned election observers from the US and other Western nations it accuses of pursuing a regime change agenda in Zimbabwe.

The US ambassador urged the SADC to issue a clear and firm statement condemning political violence in Zimbabwe in the same way the UN Security Council on Monday unanimously condemned violence in the southern African country and called for cancellation of the run-off poll.

African organisations such as the SADC were the best placed to exert great influence on the government of Zimbabwe than international bodies such as the UN, McGee said.

He said for a landlocked country like Zimbabwe pressure tactics such as border closings and isolation from its neighbors would have a "tremendous and immediate impact". But the ambassador acknowledged he had no indication that Zimbabwe's neighbours were prepared to take such drastic action. – ZimOnline