The Southern African Development Community (SADC) Elections Observer Mission will launch in Zimbabwe on Wednesday 25 July 2018 ahead of the general elections scheduled for July 30th.
The regional economic community is sending a group of election observers to the southern African country’s first-ever elections since the ouster of that country’s long-time ruler, Robert Mugabe. Some 23 presidential candidates are contesting the presidential elections with a tight contest expected between incumbent President Emmerson Mnangagwa of Zimbabwe’s African National Union (ZANU) and opposition candidate Nelson Chamisa of Movement for Democratic Change (T).
A spokesperson of SADC told Botswana Thursday afternoon that a team of observers was already on the ground in Zimbabwe undergoing training on Thursday and Friday before the launch of the SEOM on Wednesday. Thereafter, he said the team of observers would be deployed across the length and breadth of the country to ensure the elections are conducted in compliance with SADC’s guidelines and norms of democratic elections.
The elections will be held on July 30th after which a report of the observer mission will be released to the Press on the 31st July and to the public on the 1st of August 2018.