Zimbabwe looms over Africa summit

by Sanjay Jha | June 29, 2008 at 10:31 pm

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Despite widespread condemnation over his one sided election victory, Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe has embark on his first first foreign tour after getting reelected . He is in Egypt to attend African Union meetings.

African Union (AU) leaders are gathering in Egypt for a summit which seems set to be overshadowed by the crisis in Zimbabwe.

Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe has arrived for the meeting, fresh from winning the election there.

He was sworn in on Sunday, but election observers said pre-poll violence had undermined the vote's credibility.

There have been calls for the AU not to recognise Mr Mugabe, but it may urge talks with the opposition instead.

Mr Mugabe claimed a landslide victory as the sole candidate after the leader of the opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC), Morgan Tsvangirai, withdrew.

The head of a 400-person observer mission from the Southern African Development Community (Sadc), Angolan Sports Minister Jose Marcos Barrica, was quoted as saying: "The pre-election phase was characterised by politically-motivated violence, intimidation and displacements."

Another observer team, from the Pan-African Parliament, has called for fresh elections to be held, saying the vote was not free or fair.

Call for dialogue

The AU has a rule not to accept leaders who have not been democratically elected - but observers say it is unlikely to take such strong action so quickly.