Zimbabwean News You Can Trust
The European Union (EU) observation mission has deployed 44 short-term observers today, which will cover all ten provinces, including urban and rural areas.
The group is the third contingent, following the core team and 46 long-term observers, which arrived in Zimbabwe earlier in July.
Addressing journalists in Harare today, EU Chief observer Fabio Massimo Castaldo said his team will monitor the pre- election phase, post election phase, and the whole duration of the electoral processes.
“We will be monitoring the process before our core team is here on the ground, and we will be here even after. It’s important to see all the pre-electoral and post electoral phase, and the whole duration, and then we will be ready to publish the preliminary statement and findings that we will get across the country,” he said.
Asked about the recent reports that they recently offered the media freebies, Castaldo said there were not eligible to entertain rumors, insisting his team was only focused on executing their work.
“We have a strict methodology, and all that being said are just rumors and their is nothing objective that have been witnessed on the scene. We do not comment rumors, and we go ahead with our precious work until the end of this mission,” he said.
In 2018, various observers missions came, but the MDC Alliance, then led by Nelson Chamisa, claimed the election was rigged in favor of Zanu PF. Zimbabweans will hold their second general election without the late former president, Robert Mugabe, on the ballot paper this week on Wednesday 23 August.
The fiercely contested poll is set to be a big battle between the Ruling Zanu Pf party led by President Emmerson Mnangagwa and the main opposition CCC led by Chamisa.
This election also see the opposition MDC not fielding a Presidential candidate for the first time since the turn of the millenium.