Sunday, February 24, 2008
A group of Zimbabweans staged a protest outside the Zimbabwe embassy in Washington D.C. on Friday, February 22.Speakers condemned Mugabe's denial of the right of Zimbabweans in Diaspora to vote in the March 29 elections. After consultations with the police, embassy officials allowed only one protester to go into the embassy to present a petition.
Here are the excerpts of the petition:
Global Zimbabwe Forum
North America Region
February 22, 2008:
To : President Robert Mugabe :
c/o Ambassador Machivenyika Mapuranga.
Zimbabwe Embassy
Washington DC
We have noted with great concern the rapidly deteriorating socioeconomic conditions in Zimbabwe, and caused primarily by the crisis of governance in your regime, especially since 2000.
Everything that could possibly go wrong has gone wrong in Zimbabwe.
You have consistently blamed the country’s problems on what you call sanctions from, among others, Britain and America. But evidence and the experience of the Zimbabweans point an unequivocal finger at your style of bad governance as the root cause of the rampant state of dilapidation.
About 4 million Zimbabweans, or one quarter of the country’s population, have fled the country. But the Zimbabweans in Diaspora did not forfeit their right to vote.
The Global Zimbabwe Forum is calling upon you, your party and your government to take immediate and effective measures to:
ALLOW Zimbabweans in Diaspora to vote;
RESPECT and IMPLEMENT the SADC protocol for conducting
elections;
IMPLEMENT before elections the agreements so far reached with the
opposition Movement for Democratic Change;
POSTPONE elections to at least June to allow for the leveling of the
playing field for elections;
ALLOW members of the opposition movement and civil society to
hold their rallies and protests without harassment and assaults from
the police and army.
ALLOW international observers under the auspices of the United
Nations to come to monitor the elections.
Right in front of the embassy, the protesters organized their own vote. Each protester was given a ballot and checked the candidate of his or her choice.
Here are the mock elections results:
Morgan Tsvangirai (MDC ) 83 percent
Robert Mugabe (ZANUPF) 11 percent
Simba Makoni (Independent) 6 percent
