2 The Election Climate Reports are produced by the NCA in order to provide information on the prevailing climate for citizen participation in the forthcoming Parliamentary Election. The NCA has already communicated its condemnation of the constitutional framework under which the elections are being conducted. The Report is a consolidated statement of the reports sent in by a national network of community monitors. The community reports sample a number of electoral “atmospherics” (described below), which aim to provide a clear description of the state of affairs prevailing in any one constituency: • • • • • • • • Freedom of Association; Freedom of Assembly; Freedom of Movement; Freedom of Expression; Incidence of Political Violence; Disputes over electoral procedures and electoral irregularities; Occurrence of voter education; Use of food as a political weapon. The reports sample 18 critical indicators and hence provide a simple score for any one constituency, which we have termed the “Electoral Irregularity” [EI] score: the higher the EI score, the worse the electoral climate in a constituency. The National Constitutional Assembly (NCA) is a network of civic organizations and activists as a grouping of individual Zimbabwean citizens and civic organisations including, labour movements, student and youth groups, womens' groups, churches, business groups and human rights organisations. It also includes political parties formed in 1997. These individuals and groups formed the NCA to campaign for constitutional reform after realising that the political, social and economic problems affecting Zimbabwe are mainly a result of the defective Lancaster House Constitution and can only be resolved through a new and democratic Constitution. A democratic Constitution is the basis of good governance and leads to social and economic development. Thus a democratic constitution leads to: • Free and fair elections • Observance of and respect for fundamental human rights • Respect of human rights • Respect for rule of law and an accountable and responsive government. Physical address: Telephone: Fax: Email address: Web address: 348 Herbert Chitepo Ave, Harare, Zimbabwe +263-(0)4-736338, 730431/32 +263-(0)4-721146 ncainformation@yahoo.ca, info@nca.org.zw www.nca.org.zw National Constitutional Assembly: Election Climate Reports.

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