UN, Zimbabwe not yet agree on election assessment team

The United Nations said on Tuesday that its election assessment team stopped short of coming to Zimbabwe despite the government's request because there were "different expectations" between the government and the world body on how the team should work. In a statement, the U.N. office in Harare said a Needs Assessment Mission (NAM) had been dispatched to Zimbabwe following a request by the government to assist in mobilizing resources for the constitutional referendum and the harmonized elections. But in the course of deploying the mission to Zimbabwe, "it became apparent that there were different expectations on the modalities of the NAM," the statement said. The NAM team is said to have been stuck in South Africa pending results of the negotiation. Zimbabwe is expected to hold general elections this year. The cash-trapped government has sought help from the U.N., as well as South Africa and Angola, after it found it did not have the funds for the electoral process. Finance Minister Tendai Biti on Monday said the country at least needs 100 million U.S. dollars for the elections. The elections will likely end the shaky coalition government formed after the disputed 2008 presidential elections. The fight for the top post is widely seen a match between President Robert Mugabe and Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai, the two long-time rivals in Zimbabwean politics. Earlier on, Tsvangirai told a press conference that the UN wanted unrestricted access to meet any groups but the government wanted it to deal only with bodies that specifically dealt with the elections. The U.N. said it will continue to engage with the government to determine if an agreement can be reached on the modalities that will allow the NAM to be conducted in accordance with the UN General Assembly resolutions. "As of now, no agreement has been reached on the modalities," the statement said. "The NAM is therefore not expected in Zimbabwe at the present moment."