Appendix 6. Preliminary Report of the Commonwealth Observer Group to the Presidential Election in Zimbabwe 9 & 10 March 2002 Four decades ago, the Commonwealth dedicated itself to work collectively towards bringing about democracy to the countries of Southern Africa. This commitment remains true today and applies to the crisis affecting Zimbabwe. It was in this spirit that Commonwealth countries engaged with Zimbabwe at Abuja last year to help resolve the land issue. It was also in this spirit that the Commonwealth accepted the invitation of the Government of Zimbabwe to send observers to the 2002 Presidential election. The Commonwealth Observer Group consists of 42 Observers and 19 staff from the Commonwealth Secretariat. Our terms of reference enjoin us to consider the various factors impinging on the credibility of the electoral process as a whole and to determine in our judgement whether the conditions existed for a free expression of will by the electors and if the results of the elections reflect the wishes of the people of Zimbabwe. Our teams returned to Harare yesterday, 13 March, from their deployment to the ten provinces of the country. We carried out a thorough de-briefing during which we discussed not only what took place on the election days (9 & 11 March) but the electoral system, the legal framework, the political background and most importantly the campaign period leading up to the elections. We shall be submitting a full Report of our findings, conclusions and recommendations to the Commonwealth Secretary-General. This Report will be made public in due course. In the meantime, we would like to make a short preliminary statement on our observations. We were deeply impressed by the determination of the people of Zimbabwe to exercise their democratic rights, very often under difficult conditions. At polling stations across the country, voters queued patiently and peacefully, and sometimes for very long hours. We were also impressed by the professionalism and conscientiousness of the majority of the polling staff, many of whom also had to work for very long hours without rest. However, it was clear to us that while the actual polling and counting processes were peaceful and the secrecy of the ballot was assured, the Presidential election in Zimbabwe was marred by a high level of politically motivated violence and intimidation, which preceded the poll. While violent acts were carried out by supporters of both of the main political parties, it is our view that most of these were perpetrated by members / supporters of the ruling party against members / supporters of the opposition. We were particularly concerned about the activities of paramilitary youth groups organised under a “National Youth Training Programme”. Members of these groups were responsible for a systematic campaign of intimidation against known or suspected supporters of the main opposition party, the Movement for Democratic Change, MDC. The violence and intimidation created a climate of fear and suspicion. Members of our Group found that very often the police did not take action to investigate reported cases of violence and intimidation, especially against known or suspected supporters of the MDC. Indeed, they appeared to be high-handed in dealing with the MDC and lenient towards supporters of the Zimbabwe African National Union (Patriotic Front), ZANU-PF. This failure to impartially enforce the law seriously calls into question the application of the rule of law in Zimbabwe. 39