EU's interference unacceptable
THE Zambian elections are a major eye opener
for Zimbabwe’s forthcoming presidential elections as they have revealed the
obnoxious interference of the European Union in African affairs.
Despite
achieving political independence, the European continent has still not let go of
its mentality of having a colonial hold over Africa and wants to decide the fate
of the continent.
By running ahead of the Zambian authorities in trying to
announce who the presidential winner is or is not, the European Union is
usurping the southern African country’s sovereignty to take charge of its own
political processes.
Presidential elections determine the nationhood of a
country and proclaim its independence. It is, therefore, an insult to all
African nations to have their elections adjudicated and certified by former
colonisers. This is totally unacceptable.
The European Union should never be
allowed to undermine the integrity of African political processes because it has
no moral authority to adjudicate such issues in Africa, having destroyed the
continent’s cultural, economic and political systems.
The hand of the
European Union in the Zambian elections should serve as a crucial reminder why
we need to take charge of our own electoral processes and move with speed in
enacting legislation that makes it quite clear that only Zimbabwean authorities
can proclaim the winners of its elections.
We should by all means avoid such
debacles as witnessed in the United States where even the media was announcing
winners of the last presidential election before counting was finished.
Amendments to the Electoral Act currently before Parliament should empower
the Registrar General of Elections to announce results of winners and no other
body, political party or former coloniser.
There is a real danger that such
careless interference by organisations such as the European Union could plunge
countries into civil conflict as political parties refuse to accept certain
results on the basis of what the EU would have proclaimed.
Africans
themselves should be the final arbiters of their electoral processes and can
call on the help of fellow countries in Sadc or the African Union but certainly
not former colonisers, whose plunder of the continent’s resources still
continues unabated.
The time has come for Africa to make a final stand on
its future political processes because the continent’s fight against colonialism
to achieve political independence was meant to usher in a new democratic
dispensation that the continent had been denied by powerful members of the EU
such as Britain.
The dignity of the African continent is at stake here and
should never be sold on the alter of expediency by those political parties that
want power at all cost, even if it means selling their soul to the devil. This
is more sinister than colonialism.
The rejection or acceptance of electoral
results should purely be a preserve of citizens and nobody else. This is what
happens throughout the so-called First World.
That is why countries such as
Britain quickly sanitised the fiasco of the American elections because they
dared not criticise another democratic country.
It is our firm view that the
outcome of the Zambian elections should be a matter primarily for the Zambians
to accept or reject.
In terms of the rule of law, voting should be as it was
done in terms of the constitution and laws of Zambia.
By the same token, the
determination of the outcome, including the declaration of the winner, must be
done in accordance with the Zambian constitution.
Any declaration by anyone
else is illegal, unconstitutional and unacceptable. This is a bottom line, which
the EU must be the first to know and respect given the noise it makes about the
rule of law.
Neither Al Gore nor George Bush declared themselves winners
when the US presidential contest was not clear and when it was even closer than
the Zambian scenario. Why should this one be different?