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Observer mission report
World Council of Churches (WCC)/ All Africa Conference of Churches (AACC)
April 21, 2008

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Executive summary
This is the report of the Ecumenical Observer Team of the WCC/AACC Mission to the 29th March, 2008 Zimbabwe harmonized election, which included the Presidential, Senatorial, Parliamentary and Civic Authorities. This election was significant in that it was the first time the country was holding all the four elections at the same time. The elections were held after a constitutional amendment that introduced a new chamber - the senate, harmonized all the terms of office to five years and increased the number of representatives.

The Zimbabwean government did not allow observers from outside the African continent. The ruling party, ZANU PF was determined to limit observation of the elections by the international community. Observers from the AU and SADC were among the international observers accredited. This report is therefore based on information the team gathered while in Harare from various sources and some limited observation of events in the electoral process during their one-week stay in Zimbabwe.

The elections were held within the backdrop of the collapsed SADC mediation talks that to some extent had heralded hope for the Zimbabwean people. Failure of the talks therefore meant that the elections were held under an electoral system that has been greatly challenged by the opposition and the civil society, in particular failure to amend the current electoral regulations.

The people of Zimbabwe manifested immense maturity in the way they turned out in huge numbers to exercise their democratic rights. Despite the fact that the official results have not been announced by the ZEC, the Zimbabweans continue to display patience, albeit in an uneasy calm with pockets of violence being reported. Although the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) party was claiming victory from its unofficial tally, all the results had not been released and it is only ZEC that is mandated by law to announce the official results.

Summary of election observation
The process of voter registration, access to the media, freedom to campaign by the opposition were somehow encumbered, to some extent, by the incumbent and agents of the ruling party, ZANU PF. uniformed forces openly intimidated the voter population in the days preceding the poll. All these events are indicators that the electoral process was skewed in favor of the incumbent who openly utilised state resources to his advantage. Thus the 2008 elections were far from being free and fair.

However, Zimbabweans must be commended for displaying maturity on polling day as very few incidences of violence were witnessed or reported. The actual polling on the 29th of March, 2008 was conducted within a peaceful atmosphere that allowed the voters to exercise their democratic rights as well as express their choice through the vote.

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