I know I am supposed to speak about the achievements and challenges faced by my organisation
in its quest to promote democratic, free and fair elections. But since the Zimbabwean situation is
unique in the region, I will adopt an almost different approach to presenting the challenges and
achievements that my organisation has scored in its endeavour to ensuring democratic, free and
fair elections in the country. By outlining the Zimbabwe situation, I will implicitly address the part of
the presentation that requires me to talk of the challenges faced by movements that seek to
promote democracy in the country. Because of the many reports that have been, so far, doing
rounds on Zimbabwe, the situation in the country, to those from without, is confusing, if not
convoluted. It therefore calls me to explain the crisis.
The Zimbabwean political situation is one that has been talked of through various media. Many of
our African brothers have been made to believe that the crisis in the country is a result of the
souring bilateral relationship between the country and Britain. Some have been made to believe
the crisis is resultant from resistance by the international community, mainly the Anglo-Saxon, to
the land reform exercise carried out in the country if I may qualify it as a reform exercise.
I would like to believe that the Zimbabwean situation is much more, a crisis of governance than it is
a result of insidious bilateral relations with its former coloniser. It is in that context that I would
briefly outline “the Zimbabwe crisis” before I touch on the achievements and challenges that the
Zimbabwe Election Support Network ( ZESN), and other civic organisations have come across
hitherto.
The major problem in Zimbabwe is that of legitimacy of the government in view of the infringements
on democratic processes by the country’s constitution, the Public Order and Security Act (POSA),
the Access to Information and Protection of Privacy Act (AIPPA), the Electoral Commission Act and
other various statutory instruments that have been used by government to entrench the will of the
ruling party over that of the general population.
I will briefly touch on the constitution. The Zimbabwean constitution, apart from affording executive
powers on the president which he has used to enjoy incumbency, absolves the government from
honouring regional and international conventions that it is signatory to. “Section 111B [of the
Constitution of Zimbabwe] states that no international treaty, covenant or agreement signed and