24 Electoral system and processes government does not have faith in its capacity to choose who should observe its electoral processes. ZLHR commends the AU for its deployment of long-term observers, even though the numbers were limited. It is further commendable that these observers will remain incountry beyond the announcement of results. Also notable is the size of the SADC Election Observation Mission, and it is hoped that the numbers will assist in reaching some inaccessible areas and areas outside main cities and towns, and a wide range of stakeholders are being consulted for purposes of establishing an accurate and substantive picture of the pre-election environment and challenges. Commendably accreditation has been decentralised around the country unlike in previous elections where it took place in Harare and Bulawayo only. This will ease logistical problems for those who wish to be accredited from other areas of the country. In the past, huge costs have been incurred in transporting and accommodating observers during accreditation. Local observer accreditation has proceeded slowly but uneventfully; however in the last few days leading up to elections, shortage of materials, large queues and queue-jumping, and extremely long processing times have increased. It is also not clear how ZEC is implementing its discretion in relation to payment of an accreditation fee for some groups. Observers who attended the accreditation centre in Harare noted that some unknown civil society groups and war veterans were being accredited without payment of a fee and ahead of others who were in the queue. Observers are supposed to pay a fee if they are not exempted by ZEC.109 The role of election observers is limited to observing and they cannot give directions but they can bring anomalies to the attention of the presiding officer.110 The accreditation is for the election period only, defined as the period from the proclamation to the declaration of results.111 Observers thus are not privy to other electoral process such as registration of voters or the delimitation of constituency boundaries, and it is left to political parties to monitor and evaluate these processes. Observation of the post-election period to determine whether counting processes at all centres are progressing transparently, whether results are announced timeously, and whether, for instance, retribution is exacted against those considered to have voted for the wrong party is curtailed.112 This provision vitiates the United Nations Declaration on International Election Observation (UN Declaration) which highlights that observation of election must start during delimitation and continue for a period after elections. 109 Some observers are exempt from paying accreditation fees. The African Union, SADC, SADC Parliamentary Forum, Electoral Commissions Forum of SADC, COMESA, Electoral bodies from Africa similar to ZEC, embassies representing African countries in Harare and any other organisation that the commission decides to make exempt. Fees are pegged in United States dollars as follows; for a local observer – USD 10, observers from Africa countries that are not exempt pay USD 20, embassies that represent countries not from Africa pay USD 50, observers from countries outside Africa pay USD 100, Zimbabwean media practitioners working for foreign media houses pay USD 50 and local media practitioners pay USD 10 see Electoral (Accreditation of Observers) Regulations 2013 SI 89/ 13 110See ZEC Code of Conduct for observers. 111Section 6(1)(a) of the Electoral Act. 112 As above.