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Unpacking the need for institutional reforms in Zimbabwe's roadmap to elections
Election Resource Centre
June 09, 2011

As the regional body prepares to make final determination on Zimbabwe's path to an acceptable, free and fair election, the Election Resource Centre (ERC) reiterates that the Roadmap to Elections should not only address security concerns around the ballot, but should more importantly be enforceable.

The ERC calls upon the region to not only endorse the agreed roadmap after the resolution of the contentious areas but also come up with an enforceable implementation matrix that secures that the next ballot is not disputed. As already evidenced by the areas not fully agreed on, the security sector reforms, media reforms and the constitution of the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission (ZEC) secretariat remain disputed. An election without reforms in these 3 key areas would remain contested owing to the following reasons:

1. Security Sector Reforms

Past elections have been largely contested on the basis of the following security factors:

• Selective application of the law during election processes including arbitrary arrests of perceived opponents of the incumbent, barring of the same opponents from exercising their political rights, dismissing and ignoring of security complaints from those opposed to ZANU PF.
• Political and election related pronouncements by police and army chiefs. It is on record that the current security chiefs have in the past and continue to pronounce that they will not allow the country to be governed by a democratically elected leader as long as that leader did not fight the liberation struggle in apparent reference to the leader of ZANU PF's main opponent.
• Human rights abuses. Over the past decade, court records have consistently urged the Attorney General to impartially investigate cases of alleged torture of those held in police custody. Evidence exists of supporters and perceived members of ZANU PF opponents who have been tortured and assaulted whilst in police custody. Such abuses have been extended to the holding of perceived opponents of ZANU PF and the denial of such survivors to medication and legal assistance as tools of repression.
• State sponsored political violence. Through deliberately not bringing to book known perpetrators of violence against supporters of ZANU PF opponents, the police have clearly shown their unbridled support for ZANU PF especially when such inaction is compared to the swift response by the same force when ZANU PF claims to be under siege from its opponents. The deployment of the military in Masvingo and Chitungwiza in the run up to the 2005 and 2008 elections also explicitly exposes the unconstitutional partisan role of the security in elections and politics especially when it is accompanied by the setting up of bases where entire communities are "invited" to be "reoriented" into supporting one political party.

2. Media Reforms

The state media has always played a controversial role in Zimbabwean elections and such a role has always been the basis of electoral conflict largely because of its contravention of the SADC Principles and Guidelines for Free and Fair elections. The controversy around the media in general and the state media in particular include among other things:

• Failure to avail equal access to political competitors during election processes. It has been argued that the state media does avail equal access to political parties during elections but what is more importantly worrisome is that, such coverage has mostly been negative for ZANU PF opponents. State reporters have always and continue to easily pass for spokespersons for ZANU PF owing to their failure to report in a balanced manner. Commentators asked to input into political issues are drawn from the so called, "high level delegation" currently in South Africa fighting to reverse the Livingstone Resolutions in ZANU PF's corner. Coverage of opponents of ZANU PF is almost always accompanied by hate speech and language and phrases that are meant to denigrate and undermine the leaders of such opponents of ZANU PF.
• Monopoly of media space. The state media has always and continues to enjoy monopoly of the electronic media space. In the absence of competition, the same media has taken viewers and listeners for granted through the flighting of partisan programmes that again undermine opponents of ZANU PF. Elections that have been conducted in such an environment have been contested and will continue to be contestable in the future in the absence of reforms.
• Partisan media regulatory authorities. Media regulatory authorities have also been largely partisan and court judgements have been quite clear on the matter. The current Chairperson of the Broadcasting Authority of Zimbabwe, who is part of ZANU PF's current regional advocacy team, has been identified as not being fit to adjudicate the licensing of some independent newspapers as he is clearly an interested party.

3. Election Management Body Reforms

All past elections in Zimbabwe have been contested on the basis of the management of results and processes. The election management bodies that have been set up since 2000 have failed to inspire confidence among election stakeholders and their repeated changes and reshuffles have not reversed such sentiments especially among political parties and civil society organisations. Resultantly, the root has been identified as being resident, not in the Commission but in the secretariat where all election work is actually conducted. From past experiences, the need to reform the election management body is informed by the following factors:

• Lack of capacity - Over the years, inadequate and at times partisan voter education has characterised elections in Zimbabwe. Civil society has attempted to find means to participate in educating the electorate and the same EMB has been quick to quash such attempts. The current state of the voters' roll is yet another indicator of the EMB's incapacity to run credible elections. Challenges witnessed in the 2008 elections also point to the levels of incapacity of the same body and the aftermath of that poll clearly shows that another election without reforms to the body will be devastating.
• Partisan Voter Registration - In past elections and this remains the case in present day, voter registration outside the mobile registration process has been partisan. Reports of potential voters being turned away by registering authorities have been received from Masvingo, Sanyati, Mutasa, Hwange and Hurungwe. These reports have been accompanied by allegations that potential candidates from ZANU PF simply instruct registering authorities to register people on hand written lists submitted by the party.
• Selective information dissemination - Access to information by contesting political parties has also been characterised by court challenges in past elections where opponents of ZANU PF have been forced to approach the courts to compel the EMB to provide them with election information. The voters' roll has remained sacred despite clear legal provisions for its availability to election stakeholders

Given the above, an election roadmap that fails to adequately address the noted concerns would only set the country towards yet another Inclusive Government as it will inevitably provide conducive conditions for a disputed poll.

The task at hand for SADC is to ensure that institutional reforms in the 3 areas identified above are enforced before the next election. The ERC believes such enforcement can be done through an immediate permanent presence of SADC in Zimbabwe to monitor the implementation of the GPA.

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