Thursday, June 27, 2013

Don't Let West Observe Our Polls, Says Sudan Envoy

Don’t let West observe our polls: Envoy

Friday, 28 June 2013 00:11
Senior Reporter
Zimbabwe Herald

Western countries should allow African countries to observe their elections if they want the same gesture to be reciprocated, outgoing Sudanese ambassador Mr Eisddleg Abdulazzi Abdalla has said.

Speaking to journalists after meeting Acting President Joice Mujuru at her Munhumutapa Offices yesterday, Ambassador Abdalla said Westerners were not the super democrats they pretended to be.

Ambassador Abdalla said Africa was better off without the West.

“As Africans we have one common enemy. They can never look at us the way they should look at us as human beings,” he said.

“They do not think that we can do good things even for ourselves. We should not allow them to observe our elections.

“Why should they observe our elections when we do not observe theirs?”

Ambassador Abdalla said Western countries do not have the mandate to certify African elections as free and fair.

“We do not need their certification. Who said they should certify our elections for them to be free and fair?

“We should give ourselves that certification. We can even do better without them. To them Zimbabwe is about diamonds and gold only. They do not think that there are humans in Zimbabwe,” he said.

Ambassador Abdalla said he was hopeful that Zimbabwe would succeed in holding elections that would be observed by Africans only and other progressive forces.

He said Harare and Khartoum shared the same history since both countries were under Western sanctions.

“Our problem is just the same. Zimbabwe and Sudan are the only two countries that are under sanctions,” he said.

Ambassador Abdalla said his stay in Zimbabwe yielded significant positive results.

He said he initiated a number of agreements that now waited to be signed by the two governments.

“So many delegations from Zimbabwe have visited Sudan and Sudanese delegations have also visited Zimbabwe,” he said.

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