“In conclusion, the Mission observed that the pre-election and voting phases, on 23-24 August 2023 Harmonised Elections were peaceful, and calm. However, for reasons outlined above,the Mission noted that some aspects of the Harmonised Elections, fell short of the requirements of the Constitution of Zimbabwe, the Electoral Act, and the SADC Principles and Guidelines Governing Democratic Elections (2021)” (SADC, 25.08.2023).
Today there was out of the world acknowledgement. I didn’t expect this. So many Election Observation Missions (EOMs) are filled with a lot of procedure, protocol and saying it was in generally fair or credible elections. That was what I anticipated from the Southern African Development Community(SADC) EOM for the Harmonised Elections of 2023 in Zimbabwe. However, I was wrong.
The SADC EOM Preliminary Report is 11 pages long. I will only take a few quotes or paragraphs and discuss that. As it shows the sentiment and also the far reaching conclusions it had. This isn’t an ordinary report. Neither is it what they tend to be. That’s why certain aspect will infuriate the Zimbabwe African National Union – Patriotic Front (ZANU-PF) and Zimbabwe Election Commission (ZEC). These two are the ones that damaged and hurt by the assessment made by the SADC EOM.
“The mission was informed that the delimitation exercise that was conducted in 2022 by the ZEC was marred with controversy. In one way or another, concerned stakeholders claimed that the report that ZEC submitted failed to observe the constitutional requirements for such an exercise, and that there were also divisions amongst serving commissioners of the ZEC regarding the veracity of the report. The main allegations made against the report was that it constituted gerrymandering, and that it failed to observe the correct methodology for calculating the 20% variance constitutional rule with respect to minimum and maximum sizes of the 210 electoral constituencies” (SADC, 25.08.2023).
“Apart from the above safeguard measure against the abuse of the voters roll, there is also room to note that as a constitutional body, the ZEC is obliged to give effect to the constitution as the supreme law, in this regard, the requirement for transparent and fair elections, instead of relying on legislation (the Cyber and Data Protection Act) that negates the specific requirement. In addition to the fees levied for access to the printed voters roll, the mission notes that the above scenario is restrictive regarding access to the voters’ roll by interested persons, including political parties” (SADC, 25.08.2023).
“The Mission noted that the Patriot Act is incompatible with the spirit of section 61(1) of the Constitution, and paragraph 4.1.2 of the SADC Principles and Guidelines Governing Democratic Elections, which requires Member States to uphold, amongst others, the freedom of expression” (SADC, 25.08.2023).
“The Mission was informed that the rural vote may be compromised by alleged intimidation attributed to a group called Forever Associates Zimbabwe (FAZ), which is said to be a quasi-security intelligence organisation. The group was said to have been deployed to wards and around 36,000 villages. The allegations were that people were intimidated to vote in a particular manner and were warned that it would be easy to determine who voted against certain parties” (SADC, 25.08.2023).
“The Mission commends the people of Zimbabwe for maintaining a peaceful political environment during the pre-election period, and on voting day. The Mission will release its final report after the validation and proclamation of final results, as provided for in the SADC Principles and Guidelines Governing Democratic Elections” (SADC, 25.08.2023).
These words are stern from an EOM at this point. The SADC EOM didn’t hold back. The Commissioners at ZEC should feel the pinch here. We know ZANU-PF will be unhappy with this, as they are now under scrutiny and by someone who is seen as their ally. Meaning Harare will be furious over this. That’s just how this goes and incumbent Mnangagwa will not acknowledge this, as it undermines his legitimacy.
This Preliminary Report is harsh and piercing through the harmonised elections. It just saying it straight forward. Telling how ZEC and the authorities planned it all. Withheld information, the lack of transparency and the gerrymandering for one-party gain, which is the ruling regime. The ZANU-PF thought they could do like they always do. However, even SADC EOM isn’t playing ball this time around.
ZANU-PF and ZEC has now gotten blasted by SADC. That wasn’t in the cards in 2023, but that has now happened. Peace.
MinBane 