SANF 13 No 24
President Robert Mugabe has won another mandate to govern Zimbabwe following watershed elections held on 31 July that saw his party winning more than two-thirds majority in the National Assembly.Mugabe won 61 percent of the 3,410,767 ballots cast against 34 percent for closest rival Morgan Tsvangirai of the Movement for Democratic Change-Tsvangirai (MDC-T).
Welshman Ncube of the MDC formation polled 2.7 percent of the vote, and the other two candidates together gained one percent.“Mugabe, Robert Gabriel of Zanu-PF party is, therefore, declared duly elected President of Zimbabwe from today, the third of August,” Zimbabwe Electoral Commission (ZEC) chairperson, Justice Rita Makarau said.
The Presidents of South Africa and the United Republic of Tanzania, who chairs the SADC Troika on Politics, Defence and Security Cooperation, have sent messages of congratulations on his election, saying the elections were successful.
The MDC-T, however, has rejected the election outcome, alleging a faulty voters roll, vote rigging and intimidation of voters in some rural constituencies, saying they will mount an electoral challenge through the courts but will not participate in government structures.
The multi-party electoral commission was made up of commissioners nominated by all of the main political parties.
The elections were praised as peaceful and in conformity with regional standards and principles by observers from the Southern African Development Community (SADC) and the African Union (AU).
Head of the SADC Election Observer Mission (SEOM), Bernard Membe, said parties and candidates were able to freely undertake their political activities unhindered prior to the holding of the elections.
“The electoral process was characterised by an atmosphere of peace and political tolerance. Political parties and candidates were able to freely undertake their political activities unhindered,” said Membe, who is the Minister of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation of Tanzania.
SADC, which had 573 observers deployed to the 10 administrative provinces in Zimbabwe, is expected to release a final report within 30 days after the announcement of the election results in line with the SADC Principles and Guidelines Governing Democratic Elections.
The AU observer mission concurred, saying that the voting and counting processes took place in a peaceful and tranquil environment.
“The poll followed a generally peaceful campaign period for which the mission commends Zimbabwean citizens and political parties who consistently conveyed messages of peace and non-violence to their supporters and the public at large. The voting was carried out in an atmosphere devoid of violence, harassment and disturbances,” part of the AU preliminary statement reads.
The AU urged all electoral stakeholders to continue to communicate messages of peace and non-violence, adding that proper procedures should be followed where there are disputes.
“To this end, it is critical for all contesting political parties to pursue the established legal channels and dispute resolution mechanisms in resolving disagreements that might arise,” the AU said.
The SADC and AU missions as well as observers from the Electoral Commissions Forum of SADC (ECF-SADC) urged ZEC to address some of the challenges that accompanied the electoral process.
These included the need to clean-up the voters roll, strengthen voter education for the harmonized polls, and ensure impartial media coverage and transparency in the printing of ballot papers.
In addition to a multi-party electoral commission, the printing of ballots was done by two government printing companies that fall under the Ministry of Finance, which was headed by an MDC-T minister. Voter registration falls under the Ministry of Home Affairs, which had co-ministers from the two main parties represented in the inclusive government.
According to the final tally of results released by ZEC, Zanu-PF won 159, or 76 percent, of the 210 elective seats in the National Assembly, giving it more than the two-thirds majority. The MDC-T got 50 seats, about 24 percent of the vote.
Zanu-PF reclaimed seats in some provinces that were lost to the opposition in 2008 elections as well as several seats in urban areas previously held by the opposition. These included six seats in the capital Harare compared to one during the 2008 harmonized elections.
The ruling party got the largest number of the 60 seats reserved for women in the National Assembly, allocated 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 was also used to choose members of the 80-member Senate based on party lists alternating women and men, with a women at top of each list.
This practice of starting with a woman candidate has resulted in several additional women entering the Senate, which will thus comprise well over 40 percent women.
Six Senate representatives per province were elected on a proportional basis from each of the 10 provinces based on the amount of votes for each party. To these were added two representatives elected by persons with disabilities.
The other seats go to18 traditional chiefs, comprising the president and deputy president elected by the National Council of Chiefs and two chiefs elected by the Provincial Councils of Chiefs from each of the eight non-metropolitan provinces. sardc.net
