Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, whether the Government plans to send election observers to Zimbabwe for the upcoming general election in that country.

The UK is working alongside international partners to prepare support for domestic and international election observation missions. However, in line with Zimbabwe's constitution and standard practice, invitations for observation missions will not be issued by the Government of Zimbabwe until the election date is announced. Alongside a small British Embassy Harare electoral monitoring mission, we hope to see larger electoral missions from the African Union, Southern African Development Community, EU, Commonwealth, US and international and domestic NGOs.