| CHURCH leaders in Zimbabwe were trying to remain optimistic this week amid mounting fears of post-election violence, triggered by attacks on the country’s remaining white commercial farmers.
The Bishop of Harare, Dr Sebastian Bakare, said in a brief message on Tuesday: “I am reliably informed that results could be announced later this week. We remain hopeful that change will indeed come, even though not as swiftly as we had hoped.
“Zimbabwean churches are organising a day of prayer tomorrow [Wednesday] all over the country to which both ZANU and MDC will be invited.”
The Zimbabwe Christian Alliance, which fielded 400 election monitors and liaised with a further 6000 from other civic society groups, is making preparations in the event of a run-off (a new election between the top two candidates), which it believes is likely. Useni Sibanda, the Alliance’s co-ordinator, said on Monday: “We are already working in redeploying church observers back as soon as official results are announced.”
More than 75 church leaders from the region had been denied accreditation as observers, Mr Sibanda said. Churches in South Africa put the figure even higher, expressing their frustration at being excluded from observing the election. “Some 110 senior and eminent church leaders from SADC [the Southern African Development Community], who arrived in the country ten days before the election, were denied accreditation,” a statement said.
It continued: “We are shocked that Zimbabwe, being one of the signatories to SADC guidelines adopted to form part of a democratic framework for ensuring free and fair elections, has violated some of the provisions of the guidelines. . . By denying our brothers and sisters from the region a chance to witness the election, they were unable to make a meaningful contribution.” |
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