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Felex Share Senior Reporter
THE European Union (EU) election exploratory team got down to business yesterday, meeting Chief Justice Luke Malaba and Secretary for Foreign Affairs and International Trade Ambassador Joey Bimha as part of its pre-election assessment.

The polls are expected to be held by the end of July.

President Mnangagwa has opened up electoral processes to ensure credible, free and fair elections, a move that has seen Government inviting the EU to observe the elections for the first time in 16 years.

Government has also granted other international observers, including the United Nations (UN), the nod to monitor the elections.

The nine-member EU delegation, led by the bloc’s Head of Democracy and Support Unit Mr Patrick Costello, yesterday met Chief Justice Malaba in the morning.

Members from the Judicial Service Commission (JSC) were also present.

EU Ambassador to Zimbabwe Mr Phillipe Van Damme confirmed the development.

“The team has begun its work positively and met the Chief Justice and Foreign Affairs officials,” he said.

“Tonight (yesterday), we will meet traditional leaders, while tomorrow (today) we have a scheduled meeting with the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission before we meet other stakeholders both Governmental and non-Governmental.

“We have a packed programme which will run until Friday and also involves meeting political parties.”

Ambassador Bimha said Government was part of electoral stakeholders which the EU delegation was meeting.

“This is a technical team here to asses the situation before the elections are even held,” he said.

“This is the norm before any election and it is what they see here that will guide them into deploying observation teams.

“They are meeting various stakeholders and we are also part of those stakeholders.”

According to the delegation’s programme, the traditional leaders were led by Chiefs Council president Chief Fortune Charumbira during their meeting.

The delegation is expected to meet Zanu-PF, MDC Alliance officials, Rainbow Coalition officials, the Zimbabwe Republic Police (ZRP), Zimbabwe National Army (ZNA), Parliament officials and donor groups supporting the electoral process.

Meetings between the bloc and the Zimbabwe Human Rights Commission (ZHRC) and the National Peace and Reconciliation Commission are also lined up.

The purpose of the EU team is to determine whether it will be feasible and advisable to deploy an Observation Mission for the polls.

The delegation is expected to come up with a report that will guide the EU in its decision.

Mr Van Damme on Monday commended President Mnangagwa for committing to free, fair and credible elections.

The last EU official associated with its election observer mission was Mr Pierre Schori, who arrived on a two-week tourist visa in 2002, but was expelled after he made a series of utterances pre-judging the electoral process.

The EU team’s visit comes after the Sadc Electoral Advisory Council (SEAC) visited Zimbabwe last week on a similar mission.

This is in line with Sadc Principles and Guidelines Governing the Conduct of Democratic Elections and fulfils President Mnangagwa’s pledge of free, fair and credible elections.

Election observation is now being done in three stages.

The first entails observing the pre-election period, the second is the campaigns and polling before a final team is sent to assess stability and acceptability after results have been announced.