Head Of African Union Monitoring Team Olusegun Obasanjo Gives Zimbabwe Election Early Thumbs Up
https://nigeriaafrica1.blogspot.com/2013/07/head-of-african-union-monitoring-team.html
Initial reports from Zimbabwe's elections showed a peaceful, orderly and free and fair vote, Olusegun Obasanjo, the head of the African Union monitoring team, told reporters on Wednesday.
Zimbabweans voted in large numbers on Wednesday in a fiercely contested election pitting veteran President Robert Mugabe against Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai, who has vowed to push Africa's oldest leader into retirement after 33 years in power.
With no reliable opinion polls and amid allegations of vote-rigging, it is hard to say whether Tsvangirai will succeed in his third attempt to oust 89-year-old Mugabe, who has run the southern African nation since independence from Britain in 1980.
In an initial assessment of the poll, Olusegun Obasanjo, the former Nigerian president heading an African Union observer team, said he thought the process had been "peaceful, orderly and free and fair".
"My hope is that this will be what the report will be from all polling stations throughout the country," he told reporters.
Both sides are forecasting landslide wins. In a country with a history of election violence the big question is whether the loser will accept the result of a poll whose run-up was dogged by logistical problems and reports of intimidation.
Mugabe, who rejects past and present charges from critics of vote-fixing and intimidation by his ZANU-PF party supporters, has said he will concede if defeated.
With no reliable opinion polls and amid allegations of vote-rigging, it is hard to say whether Tsvangirai will succeed in his third attempt to oust 89-year-old Mugabe, who has run the southern African nation since independence from Britain in 1980.
In an initial assessment of the poll, Olusegun Obasanjo, the former Nigerian president heading an African Union observer team, said he thought the process had been "peaceful, orderly and free and fair".
"My hope is that this will be what the report will be from all polling stations throughout the country," he told reporters.
Both sides are forecasting landslide wins. In a country with a history of election violence the big question is whether the loser will accept the result of a poll whose run-up was dogged by logistical problems and reports of intimidation.
Mugabe, who rejects past and present charges from critics of vote-fixing and intimidation by his ZANU-PF party supporters, has said he will concede if defeated.
