Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting 2002 - Zimbabwe

Zimbabwe

At the CHOGM, the Commonwealth made final arrangements for its election observer mission to Zimbabwe, which would consist of 42 observers and 19 staff from 26 countries. With the earlier withdrawal of the European Union's observers, the Commonwealth's delegation was to be the only fully international group judging the election's fairness. The CHOGM gave the 'troika' of Chairperson-in-Office John Howard, Thabo Mbeki, and Olusegun Obasanjo a mandate to assess whether the report of the observers met the Harare Declaration, and (if it didn't) the punishment under the Millbrook Programme. The observers' initial report was received by the troika on 14 March, and explicitly stated that 'conditions in Zimbabwe did not adequately allow for free expression of will by the electors'. In response, the troika, announced on 19 March 2002 that Zimbabwe was to be suspended from the Commonwealth immediately.

Two other countries that had been suspended were deemed to have shown progress. Fiji's suspension had been lifted by the Commonwealth Ministerial Action Group (CMAG) on 20 December 2001, allowing Fiji to take part in the CHOGM. Nevertheless, it would stay on the CMAG's agenda until Laisenia Qarase's government had been ruled constitutional by the Supreme Court. Even though Pakistan's suspension was not lifted in time for the CHOGM, the CMAG meeting on 30 January accepted Pervez Musharraf's plans for the elections in October, and recommended that the Commonwealth should send observers, with a view to lifting the suspension if the election was free of fraud or intimidation.