Summary
Zimbabweans go to the polls on March 31, 2005. President Robert Mugabe and senior
government officials of the government of Zimbabwe have emphasized the need for
peaceful elections, and put in place electoral reforms that, they argue, meet the Southern
African Development Community (SADC) Principles and Guidelines Governing
Democratic Elections. These guidelines, approved in August 2004 by SADC heads of
state, including President Mugabe, establish standards to assess the conduct of
democratic elections, the responsibilities of SADC member states and the procedures
for electoral observer missions. The principles include full participation of citizens in
the political process; freedom of association; political tolerance; equal opportunity for all
political parties to access the state media; independence of the judiciary; independence of
the media; impartiality of the electoral institutions; and voter education.
The government of Zimbabwe has made some positive steps towards ensuring the
elections will be peaceful. But, with only days remaining before voters go to the polls, it
is clear that the government has not adequately met the benchmarks set by the SADC
Principles and Guidelines Governing Democratic Elections. It is imperative that SADC
electoral observers and others do not assess whether the March 31 elections are free and
fair only on the basis of observations of the final weeks of the elections. They must also
take into account the effects of the past five years of violence, recent reports of
intimidation, continuing electoral irregularities and the use of restrictive legislation.
The government of Zimbabwe has greatly limited the space for the opposition to
campaign. It has restricted the rights to freedom of expression, association and
assembly in many parts of the country. Opposition party members and ordinary citizens
have been intimidated by ruling party supporters and officials, war veterans, and youth
militia. The government has, thus, substantially infringed the right of Zimbabweans to
freely form and express their political opinions and electoral judgments. In short, due to
this climate of intimidation and repression, the playing field for the 2005 election has not
been level.
The ruling party’s claims that new electoral acts meet the SADC Principles and
Guidelines are not supported by the evidence. The Zimbabwe Electoral Commission
(ZEC) Act, which provides for an electoral supervisory body, is not impartial, inclusive
or independent. The same partisan electoral institutions that supervised flawed electoral
processes in 2000 and 2002 are supervising crucial electoral processes for the 2005
elections. Major problems with the registration process, voter education and election
monitoring that marred previous elections have not been remedied. It is especially
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