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Zimbabwe parliamentary elections
Catholic Commission for Justice and Peace Zimbabwe (CCJPZ)
March 31, 2005

In August 2004, the Zimbabwe Catholic Bishops’ Conference, in their pastoral statement, A Credible Electoral Process for a Responsible and Accountable Leadership, reaffirmed that "An election is not an event confined to a window period of registration of candidates, days of balloting and counting the votes. An election is rather a process which takes place over a considerable period of time.

This process embraces the social, political and economic climate in which the technicalities of electing political leaders take place." It is in this broader context – and the Bishops’ Conference stated commitment to monitor the election process and to judge its outcome – that CCJPZ intends to publish a detailed report of the 2005 Parliamentary Elections. As indeed it did for the 2000 Parliamentary Elections and the 2002 Presidential Elections.

In so doing, CCJPZ acknowledges and welcomes the significant improvements in the overall political climate and the positive steps taken to align Zimbabwe ’s election process with the SADC Electoral Principles and Guidelines adopted by Heads of State in Mauritius in August 2004. In particular, we warmly welcome the following:

• The statements of President Mugabe and senior officials calling for an end to intimidation and violence and to urge peaceful election campaigning. The level of violence has conspicuously declined compared to previous elections and we applaud the more positive climate of political tolerance which has enabled political parties, particularly in the immediate run-up to the election, to campaign, hold rallies and to communicate their message to the people more freely than has been the case in the past.

  In this regard, we see the General Notice 40 of 2005 on the disbursement of money to political parties (February 14 2005) as a welcome move to create a more level playing field. In this regard also, it should be acknowledged that the use of war veterans and youth militia to bolster the ruling party’s position is a significantly absent feature of the 2005 elections. At the same time, the police force is carrying out its duties in a more even-handed manner than hitherto.

• The establishment of the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission, together with an Electoral Court, a Code of Conduct for Political parties and a mechanism for conflict management.
  
  
• The efforts made to ensure greater transparency in the voting process through:
  a) limiting polling to one day and the concomitant increase in polling stations;
  b) the use of translucent ballot boxes and visible indelible ink;
  c) the counting of votes at the polling stations to obviate dangers of tampering with ballot boxes;
  d) making the list of polling stations in Zimbabwe’s 120 constituencies widely available through the media on 18 March 2005;
  e) the accreditation of large number of domestic observers;
  f) the presence of international observers and foreign journalists.

Whilst welcoming these positive steps on Zimbabwe’s rocky road to greater democracy, there remain areas of serious concern to CCJP. In particular, we would highlight the following:

• The raft of draconian and repressive legislation which remains in place – in particular, the Public Order and Security Act (POSA) which circumscribes freedom of assembly and association, and the Access to Information and Protection of Privacy Act (AIPPA) which curtails freedom of speech and expression.

  In this regard also, we express grave concern about the Non-Governmental Organizations Bill, fast-tracked through Parliament but to date not signed by the President. This Bill is even more draconian than the Act it seeks to replace concerning Private Voluntary Organizations (PVO) and placed on the statute book by the white minority regime of Ian Smith in a post-UDI Rhodesia.

  The new Bill targets any and all civic organizations involved in "issues of governance" which the Bill sweepingly defines as including "the promotion and protection of human rights and political governance issues" and prohibits any foreign funding to an organization involved in such activities. This Bill, hanging like a sword of Damocles over civil society organizations, has already had an adverse effect in terms of activities and donor nervousness.

• The climate of insecurity and fear as a result of years of political intimidation, repression and violence cannot be changed simply through a few weeks of relatively peaceful campaigning in the run-up to the election.

  Nor can the prolonged suffering of the people – after years of economic downturn, spiraling inflation, food insecurity, high unemployment, low life expectancy exacerbated by the ravages of the HIV/AIDS pandemic – be quickly assuaged by party political election promises. In this regard also, we express concern about the partisan role of traditional leaders in this election.

• There is considerable confusion as a result of the fact that there is still no single, independent body responsible for the elections process. Together with the recently established Zimbabwe Electoral Commission (ZEC), there remains the Electoral Supervisory Commission (ESC). And government influence on these bodies remains high. The rules and procedures for the Electoral Court remain undefined. Similarly cloudy are the mechanisms for regulating and enforcing the Code of Conduct for political parties.
  
• Linked to the above, the work of the Delimitation Commission was completed before the ZEC was properly established and prior to the completion of the voters’ roll – officially completed for this election on February 4th. The accuracy of the voters’ roll – as in previous elections – remains an area of considerable concern.

  Voter education – now the preserve of the ZEC – can only be described as inadequate, given that the ZEC is so recently established.

• The media remains heavily biased towards the ruling party despite the narrow political space allowed the opposition parties in the immediate run-up to the elections.

In short, the much needed and long overdue positive steps that have been made by the government are, alas, too little and too late to have a major impact on the 2005 elections. There remains a long way to go if Zimbabwe is to emerge from the authoritarian political climate which has bedeviled this country long before independence. Yet, we remain optimistic about the continuing commitment of the people to exercise their democratic rights and elect the government of their choice.

Whichever party wins this election, we pray that the post-election period remains calm. We echo the public appeal made recently by the ZEC to "celebrate the election victory peacefully". And we urge the political parties to be magnanimous in victory and gracious in defeat.

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