of Zimbabwe, the Government of Botswana stated that it was continuing to monitor the electoral process and would announce its position on the matter after receiving the findings of its election observers, who were then still deployed within Zimbabwe.” As part of the Southern African Development Community’s (SADC) collective commitment to observe the electoral process in Zimbabwe, the Government of Botswana dispatched an 80 member election observer team to Zimbabwe. The team, which was led by His Honour the Former Vice President, Lt. General Mompati Merafhe, consisted of distinguished citizens drawn from a wide range of experience in the conduct of elections including former diplomats, senior civil servants and politicians, as well as academics, civil society and religious leaders. The team retuned on the 3rd of August 2013 and shared its findings with Government. In this context, and consistent with the preliminary statement released on behalf of the SADC Electoral Observer Mission (SEOM), the Botswana observer team reported that the election day itself was free of overt intimidation and violence. However, various incidents and circumstances were revealed that call into question whether the entire electoral process, and thus its final result, can be recognised as having been fair, transparent and credible in the context of the SADC Principles and Guidelines Governing Democratic Elections within the Community. That is why the SEOM described the elections as “free and peaceful��� as opposed to “free and fair,” the latter being the criteria for credible elections. Evidence of possible shortfalls include the fact that the voters’ rolls were released on the 29 July 2013 only in hardcopy two days before the election; questions about both the inclusion and exclusion of people on the rolls; questions over the forms of identification required to vote in the election; as well as credible allegations of people otherwise being denied the. Concerns were also raised about the conduct and integrity of the Special Voting Process that was carried out on 14th-15th of July 2013. “There are many other examples that our observers shared with Government that clearly indicate that the process was undermined by these and other irregularities. Our observers are currently compiling a report of such incidents for submission to SADC, the African Union (AU) and other concerned stakeholders.” Furthermore the Botswana government affirmed, “It is the position of the Government of Botswana, that it is in the common interest of SADC Members States, including in this instance Zimbabwe, to observe the SADC Community’s shared Election Guidelines so as to ensure transparency and credibility of the entire electoral process. In this respect, the door should not be left open for others either within or outside the Community to disparage our collective commitment to our common principles on democracy in general and the conduct of free and fair elections in particular.” Further to the above, the Government of Botswana stated that in the context of the preliminary findings of SEOM, as well as the initial report of their own observer team, there is an overriding need for an independent audit of the July electoral process in Zimbabwe. According to them, such an audit would shed light on the conduct of the July elections and indicate any shortcomings and irregularities that could have affected its result, as well as the way forward. “This will ensure that all involved in future elections would be aware of what to look out for and that there is no repeat of the same.” They made clear that what had been revealed by their observers could not be considered as an acceptable standard for free and fair elections in SADC: “the Community, SADC, should never create the undesirable precedent of permitting exceptions to its own rules.” European Union On 1 August 2013 the EU Spokesperson, Catherine Ashton, High Representative of the European Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy and Vice-President of the European Commission, issued the following statement that recognised the importance of the elections for Zimbabwe and for the SADC region as a whole. She commended the people of Zimbabwe for turning out in large numbers to cast their votes, in what were broadly peaceful elections. She called upon on all parties to maintain calm and order as the results of the poll become known. The High Representative thanked SADC and the African Union for their efforts and encouraged them to continue supporting the process. 52