AFP reports:
African Anglican bishops on Friday urged regional leaders to put pressure on Zimbabwe President Robert Mugabe to accept disputed poll results, ahead of a special summit in Zambia.
The bishops said leaders of the Southern African Development Community (SADC), who will meet to discuss Zimbabwe’s poll crisis on Saturday should “prevail upon” Mugabe to accept the results of the election.
After a meeting in Pretoria, bishops from Botswana, Burundi, Democratic Republic of Congo, Ghana, Kenya, South Africa, Tanzania, Uganda and Zambia noted “with sadness” delays in announcing results of the presidential poll.
“We are concerned that this situation has given rise to rumour and uncertainty which are bound to fuel despondency, tension and social upheaval,” the SAPA news agency quoted the clerics as saying.
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In a brief statement on Tuesday from inside Zimbabwe, the Bishop of Harare, Dr Sebastian Bakare said, “We remain hopeful that change will indeed come, even though not as swiftly as we had hoped.”