ZESN Report on the 31 July 2013 Harmonised Elections
Tsvangirai representing MDC-T, and Arthur Mutambara representing the MDC-M. The agreement was
guaranteed by SADC, and the AU, which took responsibility of ensuring its successful implementation.
Essentially, the GPA was supposed to be a temporary power sharing agreement that would be used to
govern the country while the country’s laws were reformed and until fresh elections could be organised.
The signatories were charged with:
Ending polarisation, divisions, conflict and intolerance;
Respecting the Constitution and all national laws, the rule of law, freedoms of assembly and
association;
Establishing a Select Committee of Parliament composed of representatives of the parties to
draft a new Constitution with public input;
Ensuring the political neutrality of traditional leaders;
Running the National Youth Training Programme in a non- partisan manner;
Promoting plurality in broadcasting;
Ensuring that the public media provides balanced and fair coverage to all political parties; and
Finally, holding free, fair and credible elections in a new legal and institutional dispensation.
In addition, to the creation of a new Constitution, legislative reform was a priority in the media and
electoral law, among others.
The constitution-making process began late and progressed slowly due to conflict and contestations
between the parties in the Parliamentary Select Committee on the Constitution (COPAC). There was not
much progress on the other reforms. Numerous SADC summits and meetings discussed the problem and
made recommendations and exhortations to the GPA principals to no avail. In August 2010, the SADC
Heads of State, at the Windhoek summit in Namibia, demanded recommended that the GNU and the
Zimbabwean political parties formulate a clear pathway to free, fair and credible elections.
At an Extraordinary Summit of the Troika of the SADC Organ on Politics, Defence and Security
Cooperation in Livingstone, Zambia, at the end of March 2011, SADC took a very strong stance on the
lack of progress and called for a report back to the next SADC Summit. The parties in what had become
known as the GNU proposed the idea of a roadmap to free and fair elections and this was considered at
the SADC summit in Johannesburg in June 2011. The roadmap, which was signed on 6 July 2011,
contained the key GPA issues with agreement on a timeline, even though some issues were omitted for
further negotiation between the parties.
The roadmap detailed the need for progress in the following areas:
a. Ending sanctions
b. A new Constitution
c. Media reform
14 | P a g e
Select target paragraph3
Add to table of contents