2.7. International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, 1966:
The Covenant recognizes the right of every citizen to take part in the conduct of public
affairs, directly or through freely chosen representatives; and to vote and to be elected
at genuine periodic elections which shall be by universal and equal suffrage and shall
be held by secret ballot.
3. MONITORING METHODOLOGY
3.1. Techniques used
Considering the fact the elections were scheduled to be held in all the Provinces
simultaneously, ZHRC resorted to sample certain areas in each area. This was owing
to the fact that ZHRC had limited human resources. Focus was directed on
Constituencies which were considered hotspots.
In some instances interviews were conducted with MDC-T Coordinators, Government
officials, Zimbabwe Electoral Commission (ZEC), aspiring candidates and the
electorate in general.
3.2. Events observed and limitations
During the period under review, the ZHRC observed the pre-election environment.
This included engagement with various key stakeholders as well as the general public.
Unfortunately only the team located in Matabeleland South managed to monitor the
primary elections as the MDC-T re-scheduled their dates for the other Provinces whilst
teams had already been deployed. This became a limiting factor as the ZHRC could
not monitor the entire primary election processes.
4. KEY FINDINGS
Below are the major findings that were consolidated by ZHRC prior and during the
primary election monitoring exercise:
4.1. Engagement with representatives from the MDC-T
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