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Implication of reforms on popular democracy in Zimbabwe
Fortune Nhengu Siziba
February 06, 2012

"Our demand is just and legitimate. We demand a free and fair election where international observers will oversee."- Josiah Tongogara, Zimbabwe African National Liberation Army (ZANLA) Commander (1978).

Comprehensive, participatory, competitive, free and fair elections are at the core of the democratization process in any country. Democratization in Zimbabwe has somewhat taken a lengthy and winding boulevard that has resulted in electoral outcomes that have been denounced by many governance scholars, political actors and analysts. Zimbabwe is faced with a situation whereby most revolutionaries and liberation heroes have long clamored for legitimacy, freedom and fairness in elections to no avail. There is no wonder why the international community still refers to us as an upcoming democracy three decades after attaining independence. There has also been heated debate about electoral reforms and why it is imperative to have them in Zimbabwe. This article seeks to decipher the electoral dynamics that are active in Zimbabwe, deficiencies present in the operational legislative framework and the retrogression of the military in meddling in electoral affairs.

In 2009 the Southern African Development Community (SADC) endorsed the call for reform of the security sector. The security sector was implicated in noxious political hostility and interfering in the 2008 plebiscite. Although some principals in the Global Political Agreement (GPA), who are keen on defending the so called professionalism of service commanders, still insist that no reform is needed and they also affirm that existing laws on the military and police force are satisfactory as they are. It is important to note that the advent of reforms is paramount to the implementation of the roadmap to the country-s next elections.

The GPA lacks a legal and operational framework for stalling the intrusion of security forces in electoral processes as it only incorporated reform legislation two years into its formation courtesy of resistance from some of the major principals. The reform legislation restricts police and military involvement in elections and attends to political violence. It also grants extensive powers to the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission (ZEC) to administer, direct and control elections, compelling it to publicize election results within five days of the ballot.

The lack of media reforms in Zimbabwe has worsened already existing obscurity in terms of attaining dependable information ahead of elections. Typical of election build up is the violent intolerance of the media where media practitioners face illegal detention, beatings, torture, harassment and beatings among other human rights violations. Public sector reforms are enviable and practical in Zimbabwe in line with the country-s policy atmosphere. These reforms should start from the leadership composition of parastatals which are led by former army generals who were placed at the apex of their echelons. This was a deliberate ploy to facilitate the flow of funds with regard electoral injustices and violence. This is a scenario whereby public entities have virtually been turned into income generating projects for sponsoring violence of the state against its citizenry.

Participation in elections that fall short of security sector, public sector and media reforms has adverse effects on residents as it negatively impacts on service delivery, non-violence, tolerance, adoption of people-centered policies, voter turnout and outcome. Active participation of citizens in public discourse puts them at a position where they can hold their service providers accountable. This has increasingly been recognized as being critical to the role of elections in the democratization process. Zimbabwe is continually confronted by the challenge of how best to promote better service delivery with the objective of poverty reduction and the attainment of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). To be certain, democratic space is closed and the right to free participation impeded whilst democracy calls for residents to freely participate both individually and collectively in decision making. This conviction has long played a role in states designated as progressive, democratic, open, free and developmental.
In essence, elections that lack reforms undermine democracy and free participation as they promote violence and apathy. Such elections would be merely reduced to a one man race with the major political competition being withdrawn at the final hour. The elections would be widely condemned as no one would recognize them despite the sole contestant, replicating the June 27 rejected run-off.

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