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The appointment of the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission chairperson Justice Rita Makarau to lead the African Union election observer mission in Rwanda is a confirmation that the continental body has confidence in Zimbabwe’s electoral system. Justice Makarau was appointed to lead the AU observer mission for the Rwandan parliamentary elections which were held last week.
The AU election observer mission to Rwanda comprised 30 experienced observers drawn from the Pan-African Parliament, African Ambassadors/Permanent Representatives to the African Union in Addis Ababa, African Election Management Bodies and Civil Society Organisations in Africa. The mission was assisted by a group of experts from the African Union Commission, the Pan African Parliament and the Electoral Institute for Sustainable Democracy in Africa.
This group of experts was led by Zimbabwe’s Justice Makarau and most of these observers arrived in Rwanda on 9 September to observe the campaigns, preparations and the actual holding of the elections. Justice Makarau’s appointment to lead the AU election observer mission in Rwanda comes less than a month after she concluded running the historic harmonised elections in Zimbabwe which were also observed by the AU, Comesa and Sadc among other organisations.
The fact that the AU, which observed and endorsed the election outcome of Zimbabwe’s harmonised elections, appointed Justice Makarau to lead its own mission in Rwanda, speaks volumes about Zimbabwe’s electoral system. The appointment of Justice Makarau has obviously shamed the country’s detractors that wanted to rubbish its electoral process. The MDC-T and its Western allies, the European Union and the United States had sought to discredit Zimbabwe’s electoral system but failed dismally.
MDC-T attempted to challenge the election outcome in court but quickly withdrew after realising that it did not have evidence to support its allegations of vote rigging.
The confidence shown in Justice Makarau and Zec by AU should spur us as a nation to even do better come the next general elections. Justice Makarau said she learnt one or two things from observing the elections in Rwanda which should go a long way in perfecting our own system.
Perfecting the system should be a continuous process and as rightly observed by the head of the AU observer mission to Zimbabwe’s election, General Olusegun Obasanjo from Nigeria, there is no election that is perfect. What those mandated to run the elections should however strive to do is to create an environment that enables citizens to freely express their will.
The election outcome should therefore reflect the will of the people.
Justice Makarau and her team observed the Rwanda elections from campaigning, voting, counting and result tabulation and as already stated, she must have learnt a lot from the conduct of elections that should benefit us in future. Africa as a continent should not be detracted by Western countries that continue to look down upon the continent and its institutions. The refusal by Western countries to respect the endorsement of Zimbabwean elections by AU and Sadc is a confirmation that these countries have no respect for Africa and its institutions.
It is time Africa demands at the many international fora to be treated as an equal by Western countries. We want to once again commend Justice Makarau and Zec for raising the Zimbabwean flag high and urge all Zimbabweans appointed to run such important national institutions to also strive to be the country’s torch-bearers.
Sidumisile Mabena