by Phyllis Johnson – SANF 08 No 24
The much-maligned electoral commission in Zimbabwe is emerging this week as the bedrock of a peaceful and transparent election, drawing praise from supporters and detractors.
The Zimbabwe Electoral Commission (ZEC) has maintained throughout the process that it was ready and prepared for the complex harmonised election on 29 March, in which voters used four different ballot papers to make their choices in presidential, Senate, House of Assembly and local council elections.
Its technical leadership, including the Chief Electoral Officer, have experience dating back almost 30 years to the independence elections in Zimbabwe in 1980, and all of that expertise has been put to the test in this most challenging of elections.
Despite widely expressed concerns about various aspects of the arrangements, the materials were in place on the day, the polls opened and closed on time, and there were sufficient ballot boxes and papers, all sealed and unsealed in the presence of political party agents and observers.
All of the election observers from the region praised ZEC’s performance and preparedness, and the “able manner in which they handled the mammoth task of organizing the joint presidential, parliamentary and council elections.”
The SADC Electoral Observer Mission (SEOM) said the ZEC “demonstrated high levels of professionalism, resilience and hard work in organizing these complex elections” and deserves commendation.
The Common Market for East and Southern Africa (Comesa) added that electoral officials had good knowledge of rules of procedure on counting and closing operations and adhered to the law meticulously.
“Polling station staff displayed sufficient knowledge of the electoral procedure and handled complex situations in a professional manner.”
However, the most challenging part of the Commission’s work comes after the elections, not so much in administering the logistics of the voting but in the methodology of announcing results.
“Vote tabulation is a painstaking process that in closely contested constituencies can make or break a particular candidate,” said a recent article entitled, “The dangers and blessings of the count”.
“Therefore care must be taken by the relevant electoral bodies to avoid making errors through haste that could stoke up disputes.”
And herein lies the real work of the ZEC. The process has been transparent with the ballot papers counted at each polling station following the close of the polls, in the presence of party agents and observers, and with no transporting of ballot boxes.
The results of the count at each polling station were announced there, posted outside and then forwarded to the collation centres at Ward, House of Assembly, Senate and National levels.
However, ZEC has urged patience with the verification and announcement of final results.
The good reasons for this are now emerging, and have little to do with the pace of the Commission’s work, but a lot to do with the tightly fought contest whose results are very close, ward by ward, and constituency by constituency, seat by seat.
The ZEC has adopted the well-accepted measure of moving slowly to avoid excitement and conflict, and has warned all political parties to await official results.
While political parties, individuals and organisations are free to view the results posted outside the polling stations and make their own tally, they have been told by ZEC not to announce their totals publicly, as this may cause confusion with the official results.
That instruction has been respected and the leader of the main opposition party, Morgan Tsvangirai, has pledged to await the official results and has urged his supporters to do the same.
While “parallel counting” may add transparency, it is not as meticulous as the official count.
While the results were posted at each polling station, the official process of tallying and verification is much more complex, and based on building blocks from ward level through national assembly and senate constituencies, to national level.
The ZEC did not announce results during the weekend but began to do so on Monday morning following the Saturday poll, and has announced results in small batches, starting with some of the 210 seats for the lower house, the House of Assembly.
As results were announced at intervals of several hours over a three-day period, the magnitude of ZEC’s task became clear to the public recipients of their information.
The poll is so close that ZEC has had to announce equal numbers of seats for the governing party and the main opposition, including victories and defeats for both, in various parts of the country.
This has continued throughout the announcements until, with less than 20 seats left to declare, the parties remained neck and neck, and it appears that the few seats won by a much smaller opposition party may hold the balance of power in the lower house of parliament.
A senior government official from a neighbouring country who was an election observer said “ZEC is acting in a very professional manner.
“It is very necessary to announce results very slowly when the results are close so that all parties have winners and losers and have sufficient time to absorb that information.
“All parties therefore have a stake in the process and are less likely to reject the results. It appears that all parties will have to work closely together and that is not a bad thing.”
The national newspaper, The Herald, reported in a front page article that the ZEC has been talking to the political parties about the collation of results from the presidential election, and that these will be tallied in the presence of party representatives in the coming days.
The article predicted a run-off in the presidential election between the two front-runners as it appears that both may be under the 51 percent of votes required to win outright in the first round. Such a run-off would be between the incumbent President Robert Mugabe and Tsvangirai, as the other two contenders garnered very little support.
The pace of the ZEC announcements has allowed people to return to their normal business without disruption by any kind of demonstration or potential for confrontation.
The only incident occurred on Sunday morning after the polls were closed when supporters of the main opposition party calculated the results in one constituency confirming that they had defeated a former senior official of their party, the candidate of a breakaway faction, and delivered a coffin to his door. The resulting altercation required police intervention and some party supporters were arrested.
The Zimbabwe Republic Police have said they will be on alert for such incidents, but so far there has been little action for them and calm prevails while the country awaits the verdict of the electorate.
