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1st Preliminary report on the 2005 General Election
Zimbabwe Election Support Network (ZESN)
March 03, 2005

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Background
The Zimbabwe Election Support Network (ZESN) is gearing itself towards an impending major election, the parliamentary election of 2005. There had been a fiercely contested general election in 2000, which ushered into parliament, the most formidable opposition since independence. The emergence of the opposition party completely changed the country’s political landscape as the country witnessed unprecedented levels of political violence.

Following the 2000 election in which the then nine-month old opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) won 57 of the 120 seats, the government enacted several laws that changed the electoral playing field. Most notable among these was the General Laws Amendment Act in 2001, Access to Information and Protection of Privacy Act (AIPPA) and the Public Order and Security Act. The enactment of these laws made the political environment in the country very restrictive for civic organisations as well as the opposition political parties. In addition to the above restrictive legislation, in 2004 parliament passed again another piece of repressive legislation, the NGO Bill that is currently awaiting the President’s signature. The NGO bill sought to ban foreign funding to all NGOs working on issues around good governance, democracy and human rights. This bill disturbed the programming of NGOs activities and hence the late preparedness of NGOs especially in view of the pending election.

By elections
Since 2000, ZESN observed all the 16 by-elections that were held in the country. These by-elections left MDC with 51 seats from the initial 57 whilst ZANU PF gained six more seats to have 68 seats. See table below. ZANU PF is left with two seats to obtain the two-thirds majority in Parliament assuming that the 30-non constituency members of Parliament appointed by the President vote for the motion. Recently the President announced that Parliament would be dissolved on the 30^th of March 2005, a day before the polling day. Below are the by-elections held between 2000-2004.

ZESN observed all the by-elections including the proceedings during nomination process. Election observation of these by-elections was of paramount importance as it helped to enhance the citizenry’s confidence in the electoral process once more. The dissemination of information and communication through civic education to create an informed citizenry was much more necessary than ever in order to educate the electorate on the need for a free political climate. This also enhanced ZESN’s experience in elections issues and gave the organisation the keystone to lobby for electoral reforms in the country.

MDC boycott
The opposition party MDC announced the decision not to participate in any by-election in August 2004 basing their argument on the fact that the government had not yet put into practice some of the key SADC guidelines into the political system and state administration. In August 2004,the government signed among other SADC states, a protocol on SADC guidelines and principles on elections. Among some of the key principles are in section 2.2 which are:

• 2.1.1 Full participation of the citizens in the political process
• 2.1.2 Freedom of association
• 2.1.5 Equal opportunities for all political parties to access the state media
• 2.1.10 Challenge of the election results as provided for in the law of the land.

This saw the opposition party abstaining from participating in the Seke and Masvingo South by-elections. However the MDC recently announced that it was going to participate in the election "in protest". Its argument is that, the Southern Africa Development Community’s (SADC) principles are yet to be fully applied and moreover that, there is inadequate time to hold an election because of the lack of "democratic practices".

Election calendar
The President announced Thursday the 31^st of March 2005 as the date for the general election. He also announced that the Parliament would be dissolved on the 30^th of March 2005 while the sitting of the nomination courts would be done on the 18^th of February 2005. The election of 10 Chiefs by electoral colleges will also be done on Friday 8 April 2005. The Electoral Act (Chapter 2:13) stipulates it is the ‘President shall provide for matters required by this section’… ‘A day on which nomination court shall sit in terms of section 46 to receive nominations of candidates for elections as members of parliament…’ (Section 38 sub section 2a.1 of the Electoral Act)

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