UK concerned about transparency and credibility of next year’s elections after Govt takeover of BVR

UK ambassador to Zimbabwe Catriona Laing has warned the government that its takeover of the procurement of the Biometric Voter Registration (BVR) kits could affect the credibility and transparency of the 2018 harmonised elections. The procurement was initially supposed to be done by the UNDP, which had pledged to bankroll the costs. However, in a surprising move, the government announced that it was taking over the whole process. A move which has been severely criticised by opposition parties.

In an interview with New Zimbabwe on Tuesday, Laing said:

There are a number of conditions and recommendations that the African Union and SADC made that need to be place in order for all of us to have confidence that the elections, when they happen, will be free and fair.

One of the issues we are concerned about is around the change of the procurement process around BVR. We wait to see how this is going to pan out.

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