SANF 13 No 22
Vote counting and verification is underway following the successful holding of the Zimbabwe harmonized elections on 31 July.
The Zimbabwe Electoral Commission (ZEC) has started releasing results of the Presidential, National Assembly, and local council elections, and will continue to do so with all results expected to be finalized by 5 August.
Some regional and international observer missions have made preliminary statements on the pre-election period and the Election Day, saying it was as credible and conducive to free and fair elections.
After the closing of polls, the ZEC made a detailed announcement and the Chairperson, Justice Rita Makarau, said in response to a question, that the elections had been free and fair, and without major incidents.
The SADC Electoral Commissions Forum (ECF), made up of representatives of electoral commissions in southern Africa, was the first observer mission to make a detailed statement, and described the process as fair and credible, saying the elections were held in line with the SADC principles and guidelines.
In a detailed statement, the SADC ECF commented on all aspects of the organization and holding of the elections, including a list of lessons learned.
This included best practices they had learned from the organization of the elections in Zimbabwe, as well as addressing some of the challenges that accompanied the process such as the need to “clean-up the voter’s role and improve voter education”.
The Head of the African Union (AU) observer mission, the former Nigerian president, Olusegun Obasanjo concurred, saying, “From what I saw and what has been reported so far from our observers who went out to the field, I feel the conduct of the election everywhere they went has been peaceful, orderly, free and fair.”
In a second statement before his departure, Obasanjo repeated this sentiment. The AU issued a pre-election statement based on the report of its long-term observer mission, saying the conditions were in place for the holding of elections, and is expected to issue an interim statement on 2 August.
The Southern African Development Community (SADC) Election Observation Mission (SEOM) is expected to issue an interim statement within 48 hours after the polls closed, and a statement is also expected from the Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa (COMESA).
“Everything has gone on well so far,” the SADC Executive Secretary Tomaz Augusto Salomão said, while the voting was still going on, adding that the SEOM was deployed in all the 10 provinces of the country.
A total of 846 candidates from 20 political parties and 72 independents are contesting for 210 seats in the National Assembly. Only 104 candidates, or 12 percent of the total of those vying for National Assembly seats, are women.
Four candidates contested for 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 (MDC-T), Welshman Ncube from another MDC formation, and Dumiso Dabengwa of the Zimbabwe African People’s Union (ZAPU).
Under the new Constitution, the National Assembly will be made up of 210 elected members and 60 additional seats for women to be chosen by proportional representation using party lists and based on the proportion of votes won by each political party in the constituency elections, by province.
This Mixed Member System is similar to the system used in Tanzania and Lesotho, but is implemented by province, with six women elected per province.
The provision for guaranteed seats for women will apply for the first two Parliaments under the new Constitution.
The proportional representation system will be used to elect members of the Senate and the new provincial councils.
Some 208 candidates are contesting for Senate, which 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 elected by the National Council of Chiefs and two chiefs elected from each of the eight non-metropolitan provinces.
The new Constitution introduced a “zebra-list” system for the nomination of senate candidates. Under this system, political parties submit lists of candidates showing women and men alternating, with a woman at the top of each list.
However, as election results have begun to trickle in showing MDC-T trailing in many constituencies and the presidential race, Tsvangirai has described the elections as “illegitimate” and a “farce”, adding that “its credibility has been marred by administrative and legal violations.”
Despite the initial positive reports from the main election observer missions, he told journalists on 1 August that the elections did not meet SADC Principles and Guidelines Governing Democratic Elections and the OAU/AU Declaration on the Principles Governing Democratic Elections in Africa.
Tsvangirai claimed that the voters roll was rigged, alleging that the electoral process was under the control of security personnel and that there was lack of transparency in the printing of ballots.
He further claimed that there was lack of transparency during the special advance voting for members of the police who would be on duty during the election period, although all processes were covered by several local and regional election observers. sardc.net
