ZIMBABWE ELECTION SUPPORT NETWORK ANNUAL REPORT 2010 Director's Annual Report Rindai Chipfunde Vava As ZESN reaches a decade of promoting democratic elections in Zimbabwe it is with joy that I reflect on the achievements of the organisation over the years. ZESN was born out of the need to standardize the approach and methodologies to election monitoring in Zimbabwe with the view of lobbying for the creation of the best operating environment for free and fair elections. ZESN has continued to grow in terms of election observation experience having observed elections in a number of countries including the Cambodia, Indonesia, Sudan, Nigeria, Bangladesh, Uganda, South Africa, Kenya, Tanzania, Zambia, Namibia, Botswana, Nigeria, the DRC, Malawi, Madagascar, the Ivory Coast and Guyana among many other missions. The operating environment for the year 2010 was a continuation of the fairly peaceful environment that prevailed in 2009. The GNU remained shaky for the greater part of the year and the situation became more complex with pronouncements of early elections in 2011 at the conclusion of the constitution making process. ZESN noted with concern the harassment of human rights activists and members of society especially during the constitution outreach process which saw some politically motivated disturbances as parties sought to push their agendas in the constitution document. ZESN together with the Zimbabwe Lawyers for Human Rights (ZLHR) and the Zimbabwe Peace Project (ZPP) carried out a monitoring exercise of the constitution making process through the ZZZICOMP project which rounded up operations in October 2010. The call for early elections meant that the country automatically 5 switched into election mode as the various political parties began posturing regarding the elections. ZESN continued to call for robust electoral reforms before the country can hold the next elections. To this end our four major programming areas worked tirelessly and achieved notable success in conducting workshops, public meetings, conducting researches and position papers. In celebrating the network's decade of existence the organisation produced a documentary chronicling the successes and challenges of ZESN since its inception. The documentary was shown at the 7 Arts Theatre in November during the 10th Anniversary celebrations. In 2010 ZESN engaged in dialogue a number of critical stakeholders through meetings, workshops and conferences in order to present our findings and lobby for our positions regarding critical reforms. ZESN managed to set up meetings with parliamentarians, the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission and other partners as part of the drive to conscientise them on our minimum conditions for free and fair elections and also to get vital input for our programming activities. ZESN Programming The Monitoring and Observation project was involved in a number of projects in the 2010. To bring awareness on issues of political finance and its implications on the electoral process the programme held a political finance think tank and subsequently held a month long pilot study on the subject. Long Term Observers were also trained under the programme on a number of issues including political parties finance monitoring. The programme was also able to write analysis papers that focused on the proposed electoral amendments by PROMOTING DEMOCRATIC ELECTIONS IN ZIMBABWE