Lawyers hail electoral system

Farirai Machivenyika Senior Reporter
The International Humanitarian Law and Human Rights Trust has declared as free and fair the July 31 harmonised elections and commended the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission for conducting the polls in line with Sadc principles and guidelines on the conduct of democratic elections.
In its preliminary statement, the IHLHRT said the manner in which the elections were held made it impossible for any single party to manipulate them.

“The mission found the elections to be fair. Firstly, they were peaceful. Secondly, both voters and contestants were free to choose the party of their choice. Thirdly, no material evidence of organised and systematic rigging activity was presented to ZEC or other observer missions. While the mission noted that, as in all elections or any social activity, there were a few malcontents who were apprehended from the two major political parties, these incidents were isolated, minor and did not evince evidence of any party’s involvement,” reads part of the statement. The organisation said polling officers were impartial and were drawn from the country’s civil service who were not hand-picked by an party.

“Fifthly, it is generally accepted that most civil servants and city dwellers are perceived as being supportive of parties that did not win the elections. It is impossible that they could have rigged the elections in favour of the party that resoundingly won the elections. The polling procedure was foolproof and did not allow for any substantial malpractice to proceed undetected. All ballot papers were accounted for by ZEC. A reconciliation of the ballot papers revealed no major anomaly,” the IHLHRT added.

President Mugabe and Zanu-PF trounced MDC-T in the elections, with the revolutionary party garnering more than two-thirds majority in the National Assembly and also made inroads in the so-called strongholds of the MDC-T in the urban areas.

The IHLHRT also noted that while the updated voters’ roll was not timeously available, this did not favour any individual political party. “An updated and accessible voters’ roll was available. However, the last and final updated roll was not timeously available due to the short period of time for election preparation. However, the most crucial cause of its unavailability was treasury’s failure to avail funds to ZEC on time and in sufficient amounts. When the funds were available it was a case of too little too late.

The endorsement by the IHLHRT comes after various other local, regional and international groups also expressed satisfaction with the conduct of the elections. Sadc, the AU, the African, Carribean, Pacific States and various individual countries that include China, Russia, Turkey, Venezuela, Iran also endorsed the polls. Sadc and the AU’s Peace and Security Council have also called on the West to unconditionally lift the illegal economic sanctions.