When 'Silent Diplomacy' takes hold

During the last Zimbabwean poll in 2002, of all the SADC institutions, it was only the SADC-PF that gave an independent - and quite thorough - assessment of the parody that passed for an electoral process there.

The forum saw the poll for the sham that it was and pointed out that the Mugabe-style election process had fallen far short of the Principles and Guidelines Governing Democratic Elections adopted by the regional political and economic bloc. In short, the elections were not free and fair, and SADC-PF said it.