SANF 11 No 5
The SADC region is expecting a full election calendar in 2011, with at least six polls scheduled to take place during the year.
Parliamentary elections are expected in Madagascar on 16 March, followed by presidential elections set for 4 May.
Madagascar uses a bicameral parliamentary system comprising a 127-member National Assembly whose members are elected for a four-year term in single-member and two-member constituencies, and a Senate that has 90 members.
There is, however, uncertainty about holding the parliamentary polls amid unconfirmed reports that the elections may be moved to a later date to allow more time for preparations.
According to the L’Express de Madagascar newspaper, the various political parties agreed in January to postpone the poll after meeting with the island’s Prime Minister, Camille Vital.
The discovery of gaps on electoral lists during a constitutional referendum in November 2010 was one of the reasons given for the postponement.
Another consideration was the rainy season in mid-April which makes many roads impassable and leaves many areas cut off from the rest of the island.
Municipal elections due to take place on 20 December 2010 were also postponed on “organisational grounds” with no new date fixed. Whether the presidential election on 4 May will be affected is not yet clear.
The former mayor of the capital Antananarivo, Andry Rajoelina, ousted then-president Marc Ravalomanana in a military coup in March 2009 and swore himself in as transitional president.
SADC and the African Union have refused to recognize Rajoelina as president.
Although he has promised not to run in the forthcoming presidential elections, analysts say the success in last year’s constitutional referendum may encourage the 36-year-old former deejay to contest the poll.
Rajoelina successfully campaigned for a constitutional amendment lowering the minimum age of presidential candidates from 40 to 35.
General elections in the Democratic Republic of Congo are due in November when President Joseph Kabila’s mandate expires.
The Independent Electoral Commission (CEI) announced that “the first round of the presidential election and of national parliamentary elections” has been fixed on 27 November 2011.
CEI secretary, Dieudonne Mirimo Mulongo said in the event that no presidential candidate wins more than 50 percent of the ballots cast in the first round, a second round would be held on 26 February 2012, at the same time as provincial assembly elections in the 11 provinces of the vast central African nation.
The president will be sworn in on 10 January 2012 if elected in the first round and on 4 April 2012 if there is a second round.
Zambians are due to vote this year to elect the president, members of parliament and local councillors. No date has been set but previous elections have been held in December.
The presidential contest is expected to be a two-way race between incumbent President Rupiah Banda of the ruling Movement for Multiparty Democracy and the Patriotic Front’s Michael Sata.
Presidential polls are also expected in the second half of 2011 in Seychelles, followed by elections for members of the National Assembly early next year.
Incumbent President James Michel of the Seychelles People’s Progressive Front won the last presidential elections held in July 2006. The president is elected by popular vote to serve a five-year term.
Zimbabweans are expected to go to the polls in the second half of the year to elect the president, members of parliament and local councillors.
The date for the harmonized elections will depend on the completion of an exercise to draft a new Constitution to replace the 1979 pre-independence charter agreed at Lancaster House in London.
The Parliamentary Select Committee on the Constitution (COPAC) has hinted that a referendum to vote on the new Constitution could be held in June or earlier, paving the way for elections in September ahead of the summer rainy season.
South Africa will hold municipal elections between March and June 2011 for all districts and local municipalities in the country’s nine provinces. Municipal elections are held every five years.
This election will be the third since December 2000 when municipal governments were reorganized on a non-racial basis in the wake of the dismantling of apartheid.
As is tradition, SADC is expected to deploy teams of observers to each of the countries holding elections to ensure the polls conform to the provisions of the SADC Principles and Guidelines Governing Democratic Elections. SADC Today
