SANF23 no 18
Zimbabweans cast their ballots to elect a new President, parliamentarians and councillors on 23 and 24 August in an election that has been described by most observers as orderly, transparent, peaceful and “well conducted.”
Long winding queues characterized most of the 12,374 polling stations countrywide as Zimbabweans excitedly and patiently waited to cast the votes in a tightly contested election.
At least 6.6 million people were registered to vote compared to 5.3 million in the last general election in 2018, according to the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission (ZEC).
Zimbabwe is one of the few countries in southern Africa that runs a hybrid electoral system that combines the First Past The Post (FPTP) and the Proportional Representation (PR) systems in a multi-party democracy.
The FPTP system is used to elect the President and the 210 members of the National Assembly. The PR system is used to appoint 60 members of the National Assembly, all of whom must be women and 60 members of the Senate.
A 10 percent youth quota has recently been introduced for the National Assembly. Overall, the Parliament is made up of 350 parliamentarians, who include 270 National Assembly members and 80 senators.
In this year’s election, 11 candidates, including incumbent President Emmerson Mnangagwa of Zanu PF party who is seeking to govern for a second term, and his main rival Nelson Chamisa of the Citizens Coalition for Change (CCC), are vying for the post of President.
According to ZEC, 637 candidates were contesting for the 210 National Assembly posts while over 4,800 candidates were registered for the local authority elections.
On 23 August, the first voting day, observers noted that infrastructure for voting was in place, with the Electoral Commissions Forum of SADC (ECF SADC) saying “the layout in most polling stations allowed for smooth flow of voters and the secrecy of the vote was safeguarded.”
The signage at polling stations was visible, while security was in place to ensure that the stations remained secure and peaceful.
ECF SADC said that foreign and local observers were present at most polling stations visited and party agents were present at all polling stations visited.
“We observed that voters lists were visible, well placed, of high quality, arranged in alphabetical order, and accessible at polling stations, all of which made identification of voters easier,” said the chair of the Commonwealth Observer Group, Ambassador Amina Mohamed.
At most polling stations, there were separate queues for men and women as well as voters with special needs such as the elderly, the blind and persons with disabilities who were assisted.
Observers noted wide participation by women and youths, with a large number of women also having been part of the election officials and security agents.
“At 97 percent of the polling stations observed, voting was free from irregularities” said head of the SADC Electoral Observer Mission (SEOM), Dr Nevers Mumba.
“Voting proceeded in an orderly manner at 95 percent of the polling stations observed.”
A small number of polling stations however failed to conduct voting on 23 August, which had been initially set as the only day for voting, due to failure by ZEC to deliver the ballot papers on time for a few local wards.
ZEC said the delay in opening these polling stations was caused largely by delays in printing of the ward ballots arising from court challenges.
This resulted in an official proclamation to make 24 August as the second voting day to cater for 40 wards which had been affected by the delays.
Observer missions noted the delays in commencement of voting at some polling stations and were satisfied that compensatory action had been taken to ensure that voters were not prejudiced.
“The Mission was also informed that polling stations that opened late made up for the delays in line with the law, which prescribes that voting must carry on for 12 hours,” said head of the combined African Union and Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa (AU-COMESA) Election Observation Mission, Goodluck Jonathan, who is a former President of Nigeria.
Once the voting process commenced, it proceeded smoothly until closing time, observer missions said.
“The count was a detailed and thorough process, carried out by professional, dedicated and resilient polling officials in the presence of attentive party agents and observers. The close and count followed the due process for the most part, with a high degree of transparency,” said Ambassador Mohamed.
The various observer groups, in their interim reports, made recommendations to the government, ZEC, political parties and civil society on how to improve future conduct of elections, addressing shortcomings that had been noted during the process.
Some of the recommendations include the early provision of the voters roll to stakeholders, regular communication with voters on the electoral process, recruitment of polling officials outside of the civil service, exemption of local observers from paying accreditation fees and implementation of voluntary gender quotas at political party level to increase the participation of women.
The AU-COMESA EOM concluded that: “the 2023 harmonised elections were conducted, up to the counting process, in a generally peaceful and transparent manner despite logistical challenges with the availability and distribution of local authority ballot papers in some areas.”
A Palestinian observer mission, which was led by Hisham Kuhail, the chief electoral officer of the Central Elections Commission of Palestine, said the “voting process followed international standards.”
Zimbabwe’s electoral laws give ZEC five days after the close of polls within which to announce the presidential election results. Announcement of National Assembly and local authority results is underway, with the governing Zanu PF taking an early lead across the country in rural areas while the opposition CCC continued to hold more seats in urban areas.
The winner for the presidential election has to have 50 percent plus one of the valid votes cast. If this is not the case then a presidential run-off poll can be held on 2 October 2023.
Elections in Zimbabwe are held every five years.
Zimbabwe is one of four Member States of the Southern African Development Community (SADC) that are holding general elections this year. The others are Eswatini in September, Madagascar in November and the DRC in December.
Over 3 572 local observers and 136 foreign observers were accredited to observe the elections while more than 376 local and 15 foreign journalists were accredited to cover the polls. sardc.net
