that there is nothing in the Bill or the Act that would prevent the Commission from arranging for rolls to be audited by an independent organisation. Observers The African Union Guidelines for African Union Electoral Observation and Monitoring Missions states, “International, regional and national observers have come to play an important role in enhancing the transparency and credibility of elections and democratic governance in Africa.” Elections are given legitimacy if they are endorsed by local, regional and international observers. Observers help to provide transparency and reassurance and inject confidence into the electoral process. Given the fact that there has been widespread doubt about the fairness and integrity of the election process in Zimbabwe in the past, it is vitally important that there should be extensive observation of the next election by a wide cross-section of observation teams. The presence of local, regional and international observers is essential to help confer legitimacy on the outcome and to provide an objective analysis of claims of fraud or other electoral malpractices. Observers must not be selected on the basis of their bias in favour of one party or another. In the 2002 presidential election a number of foreign observer missions were denied entry to Zimbabwe, whilst many domestic observers were denied accreditation due to the discriminatory procedures. In the 2005 parliamentary elections only organisations and persons considered to be sympathetic to the ruling party were invited to conduct electoral observation. All other institutions and persons were excluded. The provisions of the Amendment Bill relating to observers22 fail to effect the changes that would ensure that a wide cross-section of observers are accredited and that the ruling party will not be able to cherry-pick who will be accredited. Under the new provisions all observers will have to be accredited by the Electoral Commission’s Observation Accreditation Committee. The observers will be accredited to observe over the election period. Election period is defined as the period from as from the calling of an election to the declaration of the result. This means that observers will not be in place in time to observe the process of registration of voters or delimitation of constituencies. It will be left to the political parties to monitor and evaluate these processes. It would have been preferable if at least local observers had been accredited before the start of voter registration and constituency delimitation so that they had the official status to monitor these processes properly. They will also not observe the post-election period to determine whether, for instance, retribution is exacted against those considered to have voted for the wrong party. It is a criminal offence to obstruct the performance by an observer of his or her duties. Previously the Observation Accreditation Committee had five members. It was chaired by the chairperson or vice-chairperson of the now defunct Electoral Supervisory Commission. The other four members were ministerial and presidential nominees. Under the Amendment Bill, this Committee will consist of six members, three of them being commissioners (the Commission’s chairperson will chair the Committee.) The Commission’s vice-chairperson will also sit on it, together with one other Commissioner designated by the Commission. The other three members are ministerial and presidential nominees. The new composition of the Accreditation Committee is thus somewhat better than before as half the members are commissioners and the ministerial and presidential nominees have been reduced from four to three. However, the three Ministerial nominees will still be likely to exert a 22 See clause 17 of the Bill. 10