and fair elections in Zimbabwe that comply with SADC Principles and Guidelines Governing Democratic Elections. The guidelines provide that SADC member states shall adhere to the following principles in the conduct of democratic elections: full participation of the citizens in the political process; freedom of association; political tolerance; equal opportunity for all political parties to access the state media; equal opportunity to exercise the right to vote and be voted for; independence of the Judiciary and impartiality of the electoral institutions; and provision of voter education.81 It has also highlighted areas of disagreement and the positions taken by ZANU-PF and by the MDC parties. ZANU-PF and the MDC factions set out the areas of disagreement on reforms within the roadmap, with ZANU-PF’s resistance to security sector reforms as one of the key issues.82 The roadmap noted ZANU-PF’s outright rejection of the following recommendations that the MDC made regarding security sector reform: Leaders of government instruct security forces to issue a public statement that they will unequivocally uphold the Constitution and respect the Rule of Law in the lead up to and following any election; End military and police abuse of the rule of law and end all state sponsored violence; and, Redeployment to barracks of all military personnel deployed across the country.83 ZANU-PF said these are not election matters and denied that soldiers are deployed across the country or that they are involved in political violence.84 ZANU-PF has also dismissed calls by the MDC for a legislative framework to govern the operations of the CIO to bring them under parliamentary oversight for transparency and accountability.85 81 SADC Principles and Guidelines Governing Democratic Elections 82 Zimbabwe Elections Roadmap with Timelines, July 6, 2011. 83 Ibid. 84 Ibid. 85 Ibid. THE ELEPHANT IN THE ROOM 34