SANF 13 No 31
Southern African observers have endorsed harmonized elections held in Zimbabwe as free, credible and a true reflection of the will of the people, effectively quashing vote-rigging claims by the opposition that felt it was cheated during the 31 July poll.
Presenting the final report of the Southern African Development Community (SADC) Election Observer Mission (SEOM) in Harare, head of mission Bernard Membe said the 15-member regional bloc had concluded that the poll conduct was generally peaceful and credible despite some administrative challenges encountered by the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission (ZEC).
“While agreeing that there were issues such as the delay of voters’ roll and media polarisation, there were so many other elements that when put together elevated the election to a credible status,” said Membe, who is the Tanzanian Foreign Minister.
The report cited positive aspects that contributed to the credibility of the elections such as “the free election environment, the peaceful environment in which the poll took place, unhindered and non-intimidation to candidates and voters, free expression and campaigns, transparency and free voting.” It noted that political parties and candidates were able to “freely undertake their political activities unhindered and without noticeable intimidation.” “Therefore, this election was generally credible,” Membe said.
He called on the Zimbabwean opposition to embrace the results and start preparing for the next elections scheduled for 2018. The opposition Movement for Democratic Change formation led by outgoing Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai (MDC-T) has refused to accept the outcome of the elections won by President Robert Mugabe’s ZANU PF.
Mugabe garnered more than 61 percent of the vote in the presidential race against 34 percent for Tsvangirai. The ZANU-PF leader was sworn in on 22 August as president for another five-year term at a ceremony attended by several African leaders and envoys from around the world.
Tsvangirai has refused to officially concede defeat, describing the poll as “illegitimate” and a “farce”, adding that “its credibility has been marred by administrative and legal violations.” He said the elections did not meet the SADC Principles and Guidelines Governing Democratic Elections and the OAU/AU Declaration on the Principles Governing Democratic Elections in Africa. He claimed that the voters roll was tampered with and that the electoral process was under the control of security personnel and that there was lack of transparency in the printing of ballots.
Membe, however, noted that in trying to gauge fairness of the election, the SEOM had focused its attention on, among others, the state media, pirate radio stations and voters roll. The SADC observer mission noted that both the state media and pirate radio stations “were highly polarised and for the most part biased along the political party lines.”
With regard to the state media, SEOM called on the ZEC to implement provisions of the new Constitution of Zimbabwe dealing with media reforms as well as sections of the Electoral Act requiring that “…public broadcasters shall afford all political parties and independent candidates contesting an election such free access to their broadcasting service as may be prescribed…”
“SEOM recommends that pirate media should end their operation forthwith,” the report said in reference to a number of unregistered and anti-Mugabe radio stations operated by exiled Zimbabweans that operate from neighbouring countries or the United Kingdom.
The SEOM deployed 573 observers from SADC member states to the 10 administrative provinces of Zimbabwe before, during and after the elections. The SADC election-monitoring contingent had a huge network that managed to cover all 210 constituencies from 15 July to the Election Day. The final report followed a preliminary statement delivered by Membe on 2 August, and similar reports by the SADC Troika and SADC Summit in Lilongwe on 17 and August, respectively.
The main message in the preliminary report was that the elections in Zimbabwe were free and peaceful. In the preliminary statement, the SEOM had, however, deliberately reserved comment on the two issues of “fairness and credibility”, waiting for the compilation of the reports from its teams of observers that covered the 210 constituencies. The release of the final report is in line with the SADC Principles and Guidelines Governing Democratic Elections that require any observer mission to make known its findings within 30 days after the announcement of election results.
The election outcome was also endorsed by other observer missions from the African Union, Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa and the SADC Electoral Commission Forum. SADC Today
