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Hear no evil, see no evil, and speak no evil: A critique of the ZEC report on the 2008 General Elections
Derek Matyszak, Research and Advocacy Unit, Zimbabwe
June 12 , 2009

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A critique of the ZEC report on the 2008 General Elections

Introduction

On the 29th March 2008 Zimbabwe simultaneously held elections for the presidency, two houses of assembly and local government councils, as required by a recent constitutional amendment. The synchronisation of these four polls earned the elections the moniker "harmonised elections", distinguishing these polls from the run-off in the presidential election held on 27 June, 2009 after no candidate officially emerged with an absolute majority (50% plus one vote).

There were two salient features of the period immediately after the harmonised elections which dominated political comment, observers' reports and the media: the long delay in releasing the results of the first round of the presidential election, only announced on the 2nd May, 2009, and the endemic political violence that erupted, unmatched in scale and brutality since the Gukurahundi years. Reports from human rights NGOs revealed that over 170 MDC supporters were murdered in over 17 000 incidents of violence and abuse and that more than 20 000 homes were burnt and destroyed, resulting in massive numbers of internally displaced people fleeing the violence. With the exception of isolated and probably retaliatory attacks, the victims of the violence were almost exclusively those perceived to be MDC supporters. The perpetrators were almost exclusively ZANU PF supporters and predominantly members of the army.

The extreme nature of the violence and its extent led to an almost universal condemnation of the electoral process, and even "solidarity" observer missions usually sympathetic to the Mugabe government and ZANU PF party, found themselves unable to approve the election. The SADC Electoral Observer Mission noted that electoral violence was acknowledged by all parties. It concluded that the elections "did not conform to the SADC Guidelines Governing Democratic Elections" and that the elections "did not reflect the will of the people". The Electoral Commissions Forum of SADC countries reported that "the Principles for Election Management, Monitoring and Observation in the SADC region (PEMMO) guidelines in the Pre-Election phase, such as those relating to campaigning, access to the media, use of public resources, political violence and intimidation, were not adequately complied with".

The Pan African Parliament observers noted that "the prevailing political environment through the country was tense, hostile and volatile as it has been characterised by an electoral campaign marred by high levels of intimidation, violence, displacement of people, abductions and loss of life". This Mission concluded that: "the current atmosphere prevailing in the country did not give rise to the conduct of free, fair and credible elections". International electoral observer missions conventionally adopt extremely diplomatic, if not euphemistic, language in their reports and are generally reticent when it comes to attributing the source of the violence. The fact that they departed from this convention to some extent is an indication of the extremity of the violence.

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