ZIMBABWE should postpone the 2023 and future general elections until the illegal sanctions that some Western countries imposed on it are lifted, as they will not be free and fair, an opposition party leader has said.
Zimbabwe Republican Front (ZRF) president Fanuel Lisenga said the economic sanctions that were imposed on Zimbabwe as punishment for repossessing land from the minority white settlers were affecting the electoral processes.
Addressing journalists at the Bulawayo Media Centre yesterday, Lisenga urged other political parties to boycott the 2023 polls and future harmonised elections unless the sanctions were removed. “I call upon other political parties to shun the polls if the restrictive measures are maintained,” he said.
“We cannot say the sanctions are targeted when their spill-over effects are affecting ordinary people,” he added. Zimbabwe has been in a stand-off with the West for over two decades after it compulsorily acquired excess farmland from whites to resettle landless blacks.
As punishment for the move, Western countries led by the United Kingdom and the United States imposed sanctions on the country, as well as led an international media onslaught to tarnish its image, alleging human rights abuses and cracking down on the opposition.
But Lisenga said the restrictive measures were illegal as they were imposed outside the United Nations framework. — New Ziana