INTRODUCTION
The month under review saw elections remain high on the political agenda as evidence by
various media reports on Zimbabwe’s readiness for elections and the subsequent
instruction by President Mugabe to “budget for elections in 2011”. In addition, COPAC
concluded the Constitutional Reform Outreach process in most parts of the country except
for Harare. Harare witnessed open violence, which was downplayed in most parts of the
country during the three months. Meetings in Harare were suspended and this update
provides an analysis of events that transpired during the month of September and their
implications on Zimbabwe’s electoral processes, democracy and governance.
The Zimbabwe Election Support Network remains dedicated to the promotion of democratic
elections in Zimbabwe. In line with this objective, ZESN continue to analyse the political
environment and the 45 rural constituencies that have been systematically selected. The
constituencies were especially selected owing to a number of reasons including those where
by-elections are long overdue, areas that experienced inordinately high levels of political
violence in the 2008 elections as well as constituencies in which candidates succeeded by
notably small margins. This update is informed by observations from the chosen
constituencies and broadly captures national political developments in September 2010.