Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, what plans the Government has to help ensure that elections due to be held in Zimbabwe in 2018 are conducted in a free, fair and transparent manner.

The UK has consistently called for free and fair elections in Zimbabwe, in line with the country’s constitution. We have engaged regularly with actors from across the political spectrum to discuss how the international community can best support Zimbabwe’s democratisation process. Most recently, our Ambassador in Harare met President Mnangagwa on 5 May and the Foreign Secretary met MDC Alliance leader Nelson Chamisa on 9 May to discuss these points.

The UK will participate in the EU Electoral Observation Mission which will be deployed to Zimbabwe to monitor the electoral process. Between 2014 and 2019 we are spending £24 million on civil society support for transparency, accountability, human rights and citizen engagement in Zimbabwe, much of which will help support democratisation. This includes an increase of £5 million announced in February specifically to support election-related work.