Several British peers asked what the British government has to do about the flawed elections held by Zimbabwe recently and won by President Emmerson Mnangagwa and his ruling Zimbabwe African National Union-Patriotic Front.
Junior Minister Lord Ahmad of Wimbledown was evasive about the action his government was going to take.
Baroness Hoey Non-affiliated asked His Majesty’s Government what assessment they have made of the result of the recent election in Zimbabwe, and whether it was free and fair.
Lord Ahmad of Wimbledon Minister of State (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office) said the United Kingdom commends the Zimbabwean voters for their peaceful participation in Zimbabwe’s recent elections.
However, the UK shared the view expressed in international election observation mission preliminary statements that the pre-election period and election day fell short of regional and international standards.
He said the UK is also concerned about the lack of transparency surrounding the compiling of results by the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission and the severe disruption of domestic observation.
Another participant Baroness Hoey Non-affiliated said it was obvious to every independent observer that those elections were not free and fair.
He said in the words of Nelson Chamisa himself, they were a “blatant and gigantic fraud”, but the hard-hitting SADC report questioned the credibility of the elections and the breaches of its own standards.
Adding, he said the saddest thing is that, as the election observers left, the familiar pattern of widespread arrests, abductions and torture of grass-roots supporters of the opposition is taking place as we speak all over the country.
Moreso, he revealed that there were even lawyers arrested and in a hospital where they were representing tortured victims the same kind of retribution that Mugabe did after 2008.
