EU Calls For Peaceful Campaigns In Zim Ahead Of 2023 Elections

The European Union (EU) has urged President Emmerson Mnangagwa’s administration to allow opposition political parties to campaign freely ahead of the 2023 elections.

In an exclusive interview with The Standard on Thursday, outgoing EU ambassador to Zimbabwe Timo Olkkonen said political parties should be allowed to campaign freely without harassment. He said:

Elections are very important for any democracy. We need to give people the right to vote, to express their political preferences and mandate for them to be governed. That is why 2023 will be an important year for Zimbabwe.

The good thing about the 2018 election was the campaigning period prior to the election day itself.

Of course, we have had unfortunate events on the 1st of August and after, but prior to that, one would witness that the campaigning period was free from violence, free for campaigning without harassment.

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That will be good if the campaigning freedom could be replicated in next year’s election.

I wouldn’t say that we need to copy everything that was done in 2018 but at least the fact that all political parties campaign freely and that is something that I hope to see in the upcoming election.

On 1 August 2018, soldiers shot and killed 6 civilians in central Harare after protests erupted over a perceived delay in the announcement of presidential election results.

Meanwhile, suspected ZANU PF activists unleashed violence on CCC members last week to block the party’s leader, Nelson Chamisa, from addressing campaign rallies.

Scores of CCC supporters were injured in Wedza, Murewa and Gokwe last week after they were attacked by ZANU PF youth.

More: The Standard