There were issues that were raised by many observer missions to Zimbabwe in the July 31 Harmonised Elections. These were revolving mainly around the voters’ registration, access to media, voter education and the voters’ roll.
What Observer Missions said: Sadc Election
Observer Mission 2013 Report
“The provision of voters’ roll in time goes to the very heart of fairness in the election process. If the voters’ roll is not made available on time, the fairness of the election is brought into question. This is because voters’ rolls are public documents and it is the duty of Electoral Commission to abide by Section 21, Sub-Section 1 of 6 of the Electoral Act.”
Africa Union Observer Mission 2013 report
The Mission continues to express grave concerns about the matter of the Voters’ Roll:
Despite assertions by the RGV that hard copies of the voter roll were availed to all political parties, – other than for one political party – observers have found no evidence that hard copies were generally available to all who required them and who by law should have them.
Related to this, the Mission notes serious concerns raised by some stakeholders regarding the duplication and omission of voter names, which must not be allowed, casting doubts on the possible outcomes of the elections.
The concerns about the voters roll are critical in determining the degree of disenfranchisement or disqualification of legitimate voters from voting.
Zimbabwe Human Rights Commission (ZHRC) 2013 Report
The ZHRC report raises pertinent issues regarding irregularities in the electoral processes which include “the inadequate and delayed funding of the elections, voters’ registration and voters’ roll challenges, inadequate voter education, dearth of intra-party democracy and the low participation of women”.
CSO’s JOINT
STATEMENT ON THE JUST ENDED MOBILE VOTER REGISTRATION EXERCISE HARARE – 21 May 2013
“..It is our overall assessment that the mobile voter registration exercise as implemented by the registrar general’s office and supervised by Zimbabwe Electoral Commission (ZEC), has failed to comprehensively reach out to all prospective registrants.”
Providing Oversight/ Watchdog
Election observation or monitoring is one of the checks-and-balances that protect the integrity, viability and credibility of election management, as well as the participation of political parties, candidates, citizens and interest groups.
In addition, observation promotes compliance with the legal framework and dissuades questionable activities and potential conflict that might arise due to lack of information.
Impending By-Elections
The ZEC will conduct parliamentary by-elections on 27 March 2015 in Chirumanzu-Zibagwe and Mt Darwin West constituencies. The proclamation though late for Mt Darwin West reflects the political shenanigans that politicians theatres out when it is beneficial for them www.thezimbabwean.co/politics/zimbabwe-elections/74851/by-elections-illegal-as-zec.html.Mt Darwin West fell vacant in 2013 and it took more than 13 months for it to be declared vacant. For profiles of the two constituencies follow http://zesn.org.zw/images/chirumanzuprofile.pdf and http://zesn.org.zw/images/mtdarwinwest.pdf
The Questions: Who? Why? How?
Election observation should be tailor-made to suit the environment and can be carried out by political parties, local or community based, faith based, national non-governmental organisations (NGOs), the media, individual voters, and international groups or organisations.
Observation serves a lot of purposes not limited to monitoring and reporting on compliance with standards, deterring fraud, assessing the conduct of electoral officers, candidates, supporters and the interest of citizens.
Non-partisan reflection is expected to be unbiased and to provide objective reports. Since reporting on elections usually involves forming an outlook about the process, integrity in election observation is itself important. It is also however critical that those who are participating as candidates provide well trained “process watchers” throughout the electoral process from voter education, nomination, voter registration drives, printing and distribution of materials through to announcement of final outcomes.
The norm has been to observe on Election Day particularly the counting and results announcement. Results in themselves do not say much about pre-polling day processes hence the need for parties and interested groups in observing in a holistic approach.
As discussed above, to be more effective, observation should cover the entire electoral process (the entire Electoral Cycle), not just some aspects such as voter registration zesnblog.blogspot.com or polling. Among other things, observers must scrutinize some of these areas and the nitty-gritties are only dependent on the nature of previous issues:
Figure 1 Things to watch
The appropriateness of the legal framework is pertinent;
– the appropriateness of electoral procedures and preparations, including training of election staff;
– delimitation of election boundaries;
– voter registration;
– voter information and education programs;
– registration of political parties and candidates;
– freedom of assembly and movement;
– freedom of expression and equal access to the media;
– use of public resources for campaign purposes;
– activities on election day;
– vote counting and compilation of the results; and whether there are appropriate, impartial procedures for lodging complaints about election results, and legitimate and functioning procedures and dispute resolution mechanisms for resolving them.
Recommendations
Parties and candidates often rely on “chitchats’” thus lack of solid evidence and this deters them from challenging malpractices and thus at the end relies more on outsiders sources.
The basis for participating in an election should be informed by strong departments in political parties, community based and national based groups which can mobilize, train and deploy both in quality and quantity, coordinate and network to comprehensively cover all areas or strategically deploy to meet the needs identified in baselines.
Political parties often do not tape into the available supporters based locally to carryout observation at all levels of the electoral process.
Observation is critical in making sure that anomalies noted are remedied in the next cycle of elections and deterring potential law breakers from enthusiastically violating the law.
Polls are an opportunity for the people to choose their own leadership and while in Zimbabwe it is by choice to participate or not participate however an “all-black out” on participation might end up disenfranchising some potential voters. – Solomon writes in his personal capacity and can be contacted @ bobosibunus@gmail.com, skype: bobosibunus, twitter: @pacesettersyuth
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