SANF 13 No 21
All is set for Zimbabwe harmonized elections on 31 July when the southern African country will choose a new leadership to replace an inclusive government in existence since 2009.
Campaigning closed on 29 July, with the preservation of national unity and internal cohesion being the major campaign issues for most political parties.
In the eagerly-awaited elections, more than 6.4 million eligible Zimbabweans will vote for the president, constituency members of the National Assembly and local government councillors.
The proportional representation system will be used to elect members of the Senate and the new provincial councils.
Four candidates are contesting the presidency. These are President Robert Mugabe of the Zimbabwe African National Union-Patriotic Front (Zanu-PF), Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai of the Movement for Democratic Change-Tsvangirai (MDC-T), Welshman Ncube of another MDC formation and Dumiso Dabengwa of the Zimbabwe African People’s Union (ZAPU).
A fifth presidential candidate, Kisinoti Mukwazhe of the Zimbabwe Development Party withdrew from the race a few days before the elections, saying he will now back Mugabe for the presidency.
More than 20 political parties are contesting for the 210 elected seats in the National Assembly. In addition to the main ones mentioned above, some of the parties contesting the elections are the Freedom Front, FreeZim Congress and the Alliance Khumbul’ Ekhaya (AKE), a coalition of eight small parties that was formed in 2012.
The alliance comprises the Patriotic Union of Matabeleland (PUMA), Mthwakazi National Party (MNP), Matabeleland Liberation Organisation (MLO), Mthwakazi Liberation Front (MLF), UMhlahlo Wesizwe SikaMthwakazi, the Zimbabwe Unemployed People’s Union (ZUPA), Isijula Trust and Zapu-FP.
A total of 846 candidates are vying for seats in the National Assembly, including 72 independents. Only 104 candidates, or 12 percent of the total of those vying for National Assembly seats, are female.
Some 208 candidates are contesting for Senate.
The election marks the first time that the country is holdings its elections under the new Constitution signed in May.
Under the new Constitution, the National Assembly will be made up of 210 elected members and 60 reserved seats for women.
There will be six seats reserved for women in each of the 10 administrative provinces in Zimbabwe, with the members elected through a system of proportional representation based on the votes cast for candidates representing parties contesting the parliamentary elections in each of the provinces.
The provision for reserved seats for women will apply for the first two Parliaments under the new Constitution.
The Senate will be made up of 80 members, comprising six representatives elected on a proportional basis from each of the 10 provinces based on the amount of votes for each party per province as well as two representatives of persons with disabilities.
The remainder will be 18 traditional chiefs, comprising the president and deputy president of the National Council of Chiefs and two chiefs each from eight provinces that exclude the two metropolitan provinces of Harare and Bulawayo.
For the first time since independence, Zimbabwe has introduced a “zebra-list” system for the nomination of senate candidates.
Under this system, political parties will be required to submit lists of candidates showing women and men alternating, with a woman at the top of each list.
Regional and international election observers deployed across the country to observe the harmonized elections have hailed the pre-election period as conducive for the holding of free and fair elections.
They have urged Zimbabweans to maintain and observer peace during and after the watershed election.
The Southern African Development Community (SADC) Election Observer Mission, the African Union (AU) observer mission, and the Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa are some of the missions observing the polls.
The expectations of the regional observers would be guided and measured mainly against provisions and requirements of the Zimbabwe Constitution and Electoral Act, as well as the other provisions such as SADC Principles and Guidelines Governing Democratic Elections and the OAU/AU Declaration on the Principles Governing Democratic Elections in Africa.
Traditionally, observation is undertaken in three phases: the pre-election period, election-day and post-election phases.
Speaking ahead of polls, the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission (ZEC) said the country is ready is ready for the harmonised elections, with ballot papers, the voters roll and other electoral paraphernalia having been dispatched to all the provinces.
“We are now prepared for the elections. All the basic ingredients for the elections are now in place,” ZEC chairperson Rita Makarau said.
More than 11,780 local and foreign observers have been accredited for the elections, together with 887 foreign journalists and 444 local scribes, according to ZEC.
About 2.5 million voted in the last harmonized election held in March 2008 that saw the MDC-T winning one more seat than Zanu-PF in the then House of Assembly.
Zanu-PF got a majority in the Senate and got the popular vote in the House of Assembly.
Tsvangirai got more votes than Mugabe in the first round of presidential elections, garnering 47.9 percent of the vote against 43.2 percent for the latter.
Two other presidential candidates, Simba Makoni and Langton Towungana, got 8.3 percent and less than one percent, respectively.
Since the presidential election failed to produce a clear winner, a presidential runoff was held in June 2008 and won by Mugabe. However, there was dispute over the outcome of a presidential run-off.
A post-election political impasse between Zanu-PF and MDC-T prompted SADC to step up its mediation efforts under the facilitation of then South African president Thabo Mbeki, which produced a Global Political Agreement signed in September 2008 that paved the way for the establishment of an inclusive government in February 2009. sardc.net
