Harare, 26/06/2000 (Agence Europe) - Pierre Schori, Swedish member of the Socialist group in the European Parliament and head of the European Union observers mission during the legislative elections on Saturday and Sunday in Zimbabwe, asserted in a press conference that "the adjectives of free and fair are not applicable to this election." The ruling party, Zanu-PF, deliberately blocked the work of the independent observers that followed the elections, noted Mr. Schori, who denounced the acts "of violence and intimidation seen during the pre-election phase."
While awaiting to publish a complete report on the EU observers mission, Pierre Schori in particular indicated, in a statement, that, despite this "high level of violence and intimidation during the campaign and serious failures and irregularities during the election process," the people of Zimbabwe showed "a clear determination to influence the future of their country." Mr. Schori, indicated that the EU deployed around 190 observers who visited, during two days of voting, around 1700 electoral seats (40% of the total), nevertheless notes "serious problems" of the voters who could not cast their vote. As for the election campaign, Mr. Schori noted in particular that the Electoral Supervisory Commission was "systematically rendered ineffective by both legal and administrative means," and that it had introduced changes to electoral provisions only days before the vote, as well as a "series of deliberate administrative obstructions, severely undermined the ability of domestic monitors to carry out their work." According to Mr. Schori, the Zanu-PF leaders seem to have "sanctioned the use of violence and intimidation against political opponents and contributed significantly to the climate of fear so evident during the election campaign." In the cities, despite intimidation, the campaign was "robust", underlines Mr. Schori, while he notes that, in many rural areas, "the levels of intimidation by Zanu-PF were so intense as to make it virtually impossible for the opposition to campaign." Furthermore, he notes, the media controlled by the government did not ensure equal access to all the political parties, and the opposition parties had to rely on "commercial media" only.