UN ISSUES CLARIFICATION ON ZIMBABWE û- NO ELECTION MONITORS PRESENT; NONE WITHDRAWN

Press Release
SG/SM/7453
AFR/245

UN ISSUES CLARIFICATION ON ZIMBABWE –- NO ELECTION MONITORS PRESENT; NONE WITHDRAWN

The following clarification was issued by the Office of the Spokesman for the Secretary-General:

Reports that the United Nations has pulled out its election observers from Zimbabwe are not true. The United Nations had not sent and did not have any observers in Zimbabwe.

In consultation with the Government of Zimbabwe, the United Nations has offered to help with the coordination of international electoral observers, an offer it was led to believe was acceptable to the Government and on the basis of which it had made preparations. However, the United Nations received on 9 June a formal invitation from the Government of Zimbabwe to send observers to the parliamentary elections scheduled for 24 and 25 June.

On 12 June, the Secretariat informed the Government of Zimbabwe that it would not be in a position to provide observers to the election due to time constraints.

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