SENEGAL: Mo Ibrahim calls on African leaders to press Zimbabwe's Robert Mugabe for an immediate release of election results

Record ID: 455521

  • Title: SENEGAL: Mo Ibrahim calls on African leaders to press Zimbabwe's Robert Mugabe for an immediate release of election results
  • Date: 22nd April 2008
  • Summary: (AD1) DAKAR, SENEGAL (APRIL 18, 2008) (REUTERS) VARIOUS MO IBRAHIM AND MEMBERS OF THE BOARD OF MO IBRAHIM FOUNDATION ARRIVING AT NEWS CONFERENCE MO IBRAHIM FOUNDATION SIGN (SOUNDBITE) (English) PHILANTHROPIST MO IBRAHIM SAYING: "The results should be released immediately. It is a joke that almost three weeks, it's three weeks now after the elections and we don't know the results. That's unacceptable." REPORTER ASKS: "And what should other African heads of state and African countries and governments be doing?" MO IBRAHIM ANSWERING: "I think they should put the pressure there to get these results out. Because I don't understand how they are asking, the ruling party asking for a recount. But how would you know you need a recount if the results are not published? So it's just... it's a joke." VARIOUS OF REPORTER ASKING A QUESTION / JOURNALISTS LISTENING (SOUNDBITE) (English) PHILANTHROPIST MO IBRAHIM SAYING: "Without good governance, forget it. Nothing will happen. We can have all the aid in the world, we can have all the oil in the world, and still our people will live in poverty, still we will lack democracy, and still we will have genocide and still we will have all the problems we're encountering everywhere." FORMER IRISH PRESIDENT AND FORMER UNITED NATIONS COMMISSIONER FOR HUMAN RIGHTS AND CURRENT MEMBER OF THE MO IBRAHIM FOUNDATION, MARY ROBINSON, TAKING NOTES FORMER MANAGING DIRECTOR OF THE WORLD BANK AND CURRENT MEMBER OF MO IBRAHIM FOUNDATION, DR. MAMPHELA RAMPHELE, LISTENING (SOUNDBITE) (English) PHILANTHROPIST MO IBRAHIM SAYING: "We have never pretended that we have a magic wand which we will wave and suddenly Africa becomes an oasis. That will not happen. This is going to be a long road, and a long struggle. And all that we're saying here now is that it is time for the civil society, for our people to take this issue in their own hands." VARIOUS OF AMBASSADORS AND OTHER OFFICIALS LISTENING TO IBRAHIM IBRAHIM SHAKING HANDS WITH A REPORTER AND LEAVING THE NEWS CONFERENCE HALL
  • Embargoed: 7th May 2008 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Senegal
  • Country: Senegal
  • Topics: International Relations,Domestic Politics
  • Reuters ID: LVA2R7CK5HHNZWO5PK49KUVUQTA4
  • Story Text: The delay in the publication of the results from Zimbabwe's election is "a joke" and African leaders should press President Robert Mugabe's government to release them at once, a prominent African good governance campaigner said on Friday (April 18).
    Zimbabwe's opposition says its leader Morgan Tsvangirai won the March 29 presidential poll, and Mugabe, who has ruled the southern African state since independence in 1980, has come under international criticism over the delay to the results.
    Sudanese-born telecommunications entrepreneur Mo Ibrahim, who has established a five million U.S dollar prize to reward good government in Africa, said it was unacceptable that the outcome of the ballot was still not known three weeks after it was held.

    "The results should be released immediately. It is a joke that almost three weeks, it's three weeks now after the elections and we don't know the results. That's unacceptable," Ibrahim told Reuters during a visit to Senegal.
    Ibrahim, who in 2006 set up a foundation dedicated to improving African leadership, said the continent's heads of state and government were not doing enough to force Zimbabwean authorities to announce the presidential poll outcome.

    "I think they should put the pressure there to get these results out. Because I don't understand how they are asking, the ruling party asking for a recount. But how would you know you need a recount if the results are not published? So it's just... it's a joke," Ibrahim said.
    Zimbabwe announced a delay in the partial recount of its disputed March 29 election on Sunday (April 20), extending the political deadlock in which the opposition says 10 of its members have been killed and hundreds arrested.
    The delay increased opposition concern about possible vote-rigging by veteran President Robert Mugabe's ZANU-PF party. The recount could overturn the results of the parliamentary election, which showed ZANU-PF losing its majority to the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) for the first time.
    Ibrahim's foundation, which has the likes of former Irish president and head of UNHCR, Mary Robinson on its board, last year started an Index of African Governance. It ranked 48 African states on the quality of governance based on a range of categories including security, rule of law, human rights and human development.
    In the 2007 Index, Zimbabwe ranked 31. Mauritius was in first place, South Africa was at 5, Nigeria at 37, Liberia at 43, Sudan at 45 and Somalia last at 48.

    "Without good governance, forget it, nothing will happen. You can have all the aid in the world, we can have all the oil in the world, and still our people will live in poverty, still we will lack democracy, and still we will have genocide and still we will have all the problems we're encountering everywhere," Ibrahim continued.
    He acknowledged his campaign would have to overcome years of resistance to outside censure by long-serving African leaders, whom critics accuse of closing ranks and turning a blind eye to graft, abuses and genocide committed by some of their peers.

    "We have never pretended that we have a magic wand which we will wave and suddenly Africa becomes an oasis. That will not happen. This is going to be a long road, and a long struggle. And all that we're saying here now is that it is time for the civil society, for our people to take this issue in their own hands," Ibrahim added.
    The inaugural five million U.S. dollar Ibrahim Prize for Achievement in African Leadership -- the world's largest annual individual prize -- was awarded in 2007 to the former president of Mozambique, Joaquim Chissano.
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