By IRNA
London : British Foreign Secretary David Miliband said Wednesday that the decision of the Zimbabwean people in recent elections must be “revealed and properly respected.”
In a statement to parliament, Miliband criticised the delay in announcing the outcome of Saturday’s voting in the former British colony, but accepted that official figures indicated the two main parties are running neck and neck.
As yet, he told MPs, there was no news on the result of the presidential elections which could unseat president Robert Mugabe, which the UK government has been campaigning to oust for several years.
His call for clarity came as the main opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) announced at a press conference in Harare that its candidate, Morgan Tsvangirai, had secured enough votes to win the presidential election outright.
Its figures showed that Tsvangirai had won 50.3 per cent of the vote, Mugabe 43.8 per cent and Simba Makoni, a former finance minister, 7 per cent. A majority of more than 50 per cent is required to prevent an election run-off.
Miliband insisted that his government was not taking sides in the election, but said it stood with the people of Zimbabwe “at this moment of opportunity for this country and we share their demand for a democratic future.”
It was a choice between “democracy and chaos” and the British government share the people’s demand for a “democratic future,” standing ready to contribute to the “massive rebuilding task” needed, he said.
Earlier deputy Labour leader Harriet Harman, standing in for Prime Minister Gordon Brown as he attended the NATO summit in Bucharest, told MPs that the whole of the British parliament wanted to express its solidarity with the people of Zimbabwe.
Four million people had been forced to flee the country, the average life expectancy had fallen to 34 and the economy “is in ruins” under Mugabe, Harman said.
“Today the eyes of the world are on Zimbabwe and Zimbabwe stands at a turning point. Robert Mugabe must respect the decision of his people,” she said.
The dispute between the UK and Zimbabwe is rooted in strict conditions imposed by the British government on financial support that was pledged prior to independence to help land reforms, which underpin much of the country’s structural inequalities.