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Election observers are a thorny issue for Zimbabwe
Peter Fabricius, The Sunday Independent (SA)
February 24, 2008

http://www.zwnews.com/issuefull.cfm?ArticleID=18268

The South African government says that if the Zimbabweans implement everything they agreed to in their negotiations mediated by President Thabo Mbeki, their March 29 elections should be free and fair. But who is going to ensure they comply? The Zimbabwean government made it clear on Friday that only friendly governments and organisations would be invited to observe the poll. The opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) believes the elections cannot be free and fair because President Robert Mugabe has already refused to implement important things he agreed to in the negotiations, especially a new constitution. Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma, the foreign minister, was asked at a press conference on Monday what the prospects were for free and fair elections in these circumstances. She replied: "Well, the view of the South African government is that if the Zimbabweans implement everything that they have agreed upon during their negotiations . . . (if they implement the laws passed by parliament around security, information, media and all those laws) . . . the prospects for free and fair elections should be good."

But, leaving aside the MDC's concerns about the lack of a new constitution, who will be in Zimbabwe to observe whether these other agreements are implemented? Zanu PF and the MDC never agreed that they should have a joint say in who could monitor the elections to ensure a full range of observers. And George Charamba, Mugabe's spokesman, made it clear on Friday that, once again, only countries or organisations that had not criticised past elections would be invited. This included South Africa and all other Southern African Development Community (SADC) countries. It was the SADC leaders who mandated Mbeki's mediation mission. Charamba said the South African government would be especially welcome as it would want to observe the results of its mediation. He said SADC itself would also be invited as well as the East and West African regional blocs, the African Union, the Non-Aligned Movement (NAM), and certain developing world countries such as China.

Zimbabwe would not - "and I repeat, not" - invite the European Union (EU), although, intriguingly, Charamba suggested that one or two specific but unnamed European states would be invited. Ronnie Mamoepa, the spokesman for the department of foreign affairs, responded by expressing South Africa's willingness to send an observer mission, either on its own or as part of the SADC. On past performance, Charamba's announcement means that no observers will issue critical reports of the March 29 elections. After the 2000 parliamentary elections, the EU monitors issued a critical report and were not invited back. After the 2002 presidential elections, the Commonwealth observer mission said it was unable to certify the election as free and fair. This led to Zimbabwe being suspected from the Commonwealth and so the Commonwealth has never been invited back.

That year SADC - that is, the 14 governments in the organisation - declared itself satisfied with the elections. But the SADC parliamentary forum - which includes not only ruling parties but also opposition political parties from the region - did not approve the election. So it was denied observer status at the 2005 parliamentary elections, except as a member of the official SADC mission, which it declined, as this would have compromised its autonomy. Other entities whose applications to observe the 2005 elections were turned down included Cosatu, Norway, the United States, the Electoral Institute of Southern Africa - a Johannesburg-based NGO that specialises in monitoring Southern African elections - and the Zimbabwe Observer Consortium, a group of South African NGOs including the South African Council of Churches and the South African NGO Coalition. South Africa has pronounced itself satisfied with all these elections, though some non-government members of the observer mission have issued dissenting minority reports.

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