SANF 08 No 28
A summit of regional leaders including President Robert Mugabe of Zimbabwe will meet in Zambia to discuss the recent elections in Zimbabwe.
The summit was called by the chairperson of the Southern African Development Community (SADC), Zambian President Levy Mwanawasa, for Saturday, 12 April.
Announcing the summit, Mwanawasa noted that the elections were accepted by international observers including SADC, and he commended “the people of Zimbabwe for the calm and peaceful manner in which the elections were conducted.
“Similarly, I appeal to them to maintain the same spirit of calmness which they exhibited during the elections as they await the results of the presidential elections.
“Given the developments immediately following the elections, I have decided, as chair of SADC to call an Extraordinary Summit to discuss ways and means of assisting the people of Zimbabwe with the current impasse as well as adopt a coordinated approach to the situation in that country,” Mwanawasa said.
There has been pressure from the opposition parties to the international community to push for release of the results of the presidential election held on 29 March. SADC has indicated its preference to resolve any issues within the region.
The Zimbabwe Electoral Commission (ZEC) has been engaged in verifying the results of a close contest that could result in a re-run between the top two contenders, Mugabe and the main opposition leader, Morgan Tsvangirai.
Although the opposition party has claimed victory, independent monitors have said their tallies indicate that a run-off is required as neither candidate received more than half of the votes.
The harmonised elections included four ballot papers for President, Senate, National Assembly and local councillors. The latter was announced at ward level, while the parliamentary results were announced at intervals by the ZEC as the count was verified.
Vote counting was done at each polling station and the results posted there before forwarding to collation centres for tallying.
Therefore it is possible for parties and individuals to make their own calculation of the results, but this is not official and it is illegal for any body except ZEC to announce the results.
This is similar to a situation in Mozambique in the December 1999 elections, when the opposition leader Afonso Dhlakama announced that he had won the presidential election based on partial results and a “parallel count”. The national electoral commission took 16 days to collate, check and verify the results, which showed that he had not, in fact, won the election.
ZEC has stressed the need for patience and has said they are working as fast as they can but each vote counts. Mugabe’s party, ZANU-PF, has called for a recount and audit of results in 21 constituencies where they say there are serious errors in totalling the figures.
Tsvangirai’s party has gone to court demanding release of the presidential results, and ZEC has said it cannot proceed with any further announcements until the case is heard on Monday 14 April.
The SADC Chairperson appealed to the international community to encourage and support the people of Zimbabwe in their quest to resolve the current political problems they are going through. “In this regard, nothing should be done by anybody that would further give rise to heightening tension in Zimbabwe.”
SADC’s mission of 130 observers for the elections commended the conduct of the election and has in place a structure to continue monitoring developments.
The SADC structure for this purpose is the double Troika of countries appointed to liase on issues between the regular SADC summits. This is the SADC Troika of Zambia, South Africa and Lesotho and the SADC Organ Troika of Angola, Tanzania and Swaziland.
A preliminary statement from the SADC Electoral Observer Mission (SEOM), issued before the announcement of results, concluded that Zimbabwe’s harmonised polls “have been a peaceful and credible expression of the will of the people of Zimbabwe.”
Speaking at a press conference in Harare, the head of the SEOM, José Marcos Barrica said the elections were “characterised by high levels of peace, tolerance and political vigour by party leaders, candidates and their supporters.”
He said his mission was satisfied with the conduct of the political parties, candidates and the electorate, who were conversant with electoral laws and procedures in the Electoral Act and the SADC Guidelines Governing Democratic Elections.
The SADC Mission noted, however, that “the elections were held against a background characterised by a highly tense and polarised international atmosphere where some quarters of the international community remain negative and pessimistic about Zimbabwe and its chances for credible elections.”
A spokesperson for the Zimbabwe government said they would appraise their colleagues in the region of political developments in the wake of the elections, adding that they wanted to leave electoral matters to ZEC as the constitutional body mandated to deal with electoral matters.
“That is normal within the SADC community to call for meetings. We are neighbours and that is the spirit of SADC to meet and consider anything.”
To date, ZEC has released results for the House of Assembly, Senatorial and local government, which showed a very close contest with each party gaining about half of the seats.
In the parliamentary elections the Tsvangirai’s MDC won 99 seats, while the ZANU-PF won 97 seats, and the MDC faction won 10 seats, while one went to an independent.
In the senatorial polls ZANU-PF won 30 seats, MDC Tsvangirai 24 and the MDC six.
