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Ballot update, Issue No, 11
Zimbabwe Election Support Network
February 11, 2010

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Introduction

The 13th of February marked the first anniversary of the Government of National Unity. The year has been witness to a series of deadlocks, and bickering over "outstanding issues" of the Global Political Agreement of September 2008. While the much awaited JOMIC review on the implementation and results of the GPA has yet to be released, the Civil Society Monitoring Mechanism of which ZESN is a participant launched its annual review of the Government of National Unity at a reception in the Jameson Hotel on Friday the 12th of February. The report highlights the continued violence targeted at MDC supporters, human rights defenders and activists. It also notes delays in resolving the outstanding issues of the GPA and non-compliance on a number of issues.

The month has witnessed trading of legislative blows regarding each party's "outstanding issues". A motion calling on the Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai and the Deputy Prime Minister Arthur Mutambara to "engage the European Union, the United Nations and the British and American governments to urgently and unconditionally remove the illegal sanctions imposed at their instigation" was moved by ZANU PF in the House of Assembly. The MDC countered this action by reintroducing a motion calling for an investigation into election violence during the 2008 harmonised elections. Notably, a Private Members Bill to amend the Public Order Security Act was moved in the house.

On a positive note the principals of the inclusive government have agreed on the chairs of the Electoral Commission, the Human Rights Commission and Media and Information Commission. The three chairs were named as Justice Simpson Mtambanengwe, Professor Reg Austin and Mr Godfrey Majonga respectively.

There has been notably little progress regarding the constitutional outreach process this month. However ZESN has observed minimal levels of local public discussions regarding the constitution reform process.

The Zimbabwe Election Support Network remains dedicated to promotion of democratic elections in Zimbabwe. In this vein the organisation continues to analyse the national political environment in 45 rural constituencies that have been systematically selected. The criteria for selection has been to identify areas with pending by-elections, areas that have experienced inordinately high levels of political violence as well as constituencies in which a candidate succeeded by a notably small margins. This update is informed by observations from the chosen constituencies and broadly captures national political developments in February 2010.

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