by Richard Nyamanhindi – SANF 08 No 25
The official results for the House of Assembly in the 29 March Zimbabwe elections have been announced, with the two main political parties showing equal strength and the opposition parties in a majority.
The Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) Tsvangirai party won 99 seats and the MDC faction led by Arthur Mutambara won 10 seats. The ruling ZANU PF won 97 seats. There is one Independent, and three by-elections to come later.
As expected, the MDC Tsvangirai swept the seats in urban centres including Harare and Bulawayo, while ZANU PF was stronger in rural areas and maintained its strength in Mashonaland and Midlands provinces. The smaller MDC won its few seats in rural areas in the south-west of the country, and independent aspirants garnered very few votes.
There was a high-profile campaign for election of women candidates, but only 28 were elected to the lower house, representing 13 percent of the total. These included the Vice-Presidents of the leading parties, both of whom are women, and the Minister of Small and Medium Enterprises.
Meanwhile, legislators from East Africa have joined other observers in praising the harmonised elections saying they were conducted in an environment that was democratic and fair.
Clarkson Otieno Kalan, head of the observer mission from the East African Community (EAC) and a Kenyan member of the East African Legislative Assembly, said his country and region have much to learn from the conduct of the polls in Zimbabwe, giving as an example the posting of results at the polling stations.
The Southern African Development Community (SADC) Electoral Observer Mission (SEOM) was the first to give its preliminary statement on the day after the elections, saying they were “peaceful and credible” and calling on all parties to accept the results.
The SEOM also commented the vote counting at polling stations, saying it was conducted “meticulously and lawfully”.
This was followed by the reports of observers from the Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa (Comesa), the African, Caribbean and Pacific (ACP) countries, and the Pan African Parliament (PAP), who separately expressed their views that the elections were well-conducted and credible.
The observer missions said that the pre-election and voting periods were peaceful and conducive for a democratic and transparent election.
The head of the Comesa mission, Lucie Kasanga, said that polling stations allowed easy access to voters, observers, monitors and party agents, and guaranteed secrecy of the vote, adding that the mission said it did not witness any form of intimidation of voters inside or outside the polling stations.
“The mission did not witness any occurrences that compromised the integrity of the votes cast. Law and order were observed in all polling centres visited. Therefore, the presence of security personnel was limited to keeping law and order without interfering in the polling process.
“Voting procedures such as checks on voters national identity cards, and or the voter’s registration slips were used for verification of voters in the voters’ rolls and the application of indelible ink on voter’s finger was strictly adhered to,” Kasanga said.
The mission however observed that some voters were being turned away due to missing names on the voters’ roll or were “aliens” hence were not allowed to vote.
The Comesa observer mission said agents of political parties and candidates were allowed to witness the process while most voters had good understanding of voting procedures and those who needed assistance were assisted in a chivalrous manner by polling staff.
The mission said electoral officials had good knowledge of rules of procedure in counting and closing operations and adhered to the law meticulously.
The mission said since the electoral process was still going on, all aggrieved parties should address their grievances through appropriate legal channels created to service electoral disputes in a peaceful manner.
It urged people in Zimbabwe, Comesa region and co-operating partners to continue working together to consolidate democratic national governance that the country is committed to under its own constitution, Comesa treaty, regional and international instruments.
The mission hailed the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission (ZEC) for the manner in which they handled the mammoth national task of organising the joint presidential, parliamentary, senatorial and council elections.
The African and Caribbean Pacific (ACP) election observer mission said it was “particularly impressed by the calm and peaceful atmosphere that prevailed before, during and immediately after polling day. From what it observed, the mission views the conduct of the voting process as orderly, transparent, democratic and fair.”
The ACP said that voting procedures were followed to the letter and polling was done in an orderly manner, adding that in a few cases voters were sent away for not having the proper documentation or that their names did not appear in the voters roll.
The ACP observer mission was mainly concerned with observing voting, the counting process, and the other logistical aspects such as the reconciliation of unused ballot papers.
The mission visited both rural and urban polling stations with a view to assessing the state of technical preparedness of the polling centres a few hours ahead of the opening of polling stations.
The PAP observer mission headed by Marwick Khumalo also released their statement saying that campaigning before the election took place in an environment dominated by peace, order and high levels of tolerance while voting was conducted in a transparent and efficient manner.
The PAP added that the changes made in the Electoral Act facilitated the independence, impartiality and transparency of ZEC, adding that the allegations of vote rigging made by some stakeholders were unfounded and baseless.
“On the overall the basic conditions of credible, free and fair elections as contained in the African Union Declaration on the principles of Governing Democratic Elections in Africa of 2002 were reflected in the Zimbabwe harmonised elections,” said Khumalo.
Most observer teams deployed throughout the 10 provinces of the country to monitor the election and make an assessment of the whole process.
The Zimbabwe government invited five Asian countries (China, India, Malaysia, Indonesia and Iran) and four from the Americas (Brazil, Jamaica, Venezuela and Nicaragua) to observe the harmonized elections.
Other African regional organisations invited included the Economic Community of West African States (Ecowas), Economic Community of Central African States, and the East African Community.
Among the invited sub-regional organisations were the Non-Aligned Movement, Association of South East Asian Nations, Maghreb Union, Community of Portuguese-speaking (Lusophone) countries, and Inter-Government Authorities on Development (IGAD). Some are yet to present their reports.
