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Unite States and Lindiwe Zulu, international relations advisor to South African President Jacob Zuma, are hollering the expected chants denouncing this pre-election period. “We are concerned because things on the ground are not looking good,’’ they say. US State Department spokesperson Mr Patrick Ventrell went further last Tuesday, stating that his government would maintain or increase sanctions if the polls are deemed “not free and fair because the US is deeply concerned by lack of transparency in the electoral preparations’’.
What exactly are free and fair polls?
According to the Electoral Institute For Sustainable Democracy in Africa (EISA), which recently conducted a training workshop for the more than 500 Sadc election observers already in the country, “free and fair” or as some might call it “credible” elections are judged on three facets; the period preceding the election, polling day and after voting .
During the pre-election period, “free” comes from freedoms of movement, speech (for candidates, media, voters and others), assembly and association while “fair” is a transparent electoral process, an electoral act and an electoral system that does not grant any special privileges to any political party or social group.
It also denotes absence of exclusion from the electoral register, and the establishment of an independent and impartial election commission.
On the polling day, the election is considered free if every registered voter gets an opportunity to cast their votes and fair if on the polling day voters and representatives of political parties are able to access the respective polling stations and so do the accredited local and international observers and the media.
Again, the fairness comes from the secrecy of the ballot, absence of intimidation of voters, effective design of ballot papers, proper ballot boxes, impartial assistance of voters (where necessary), proper counting procedure, proper treatment of valid ballot papers and proper precautionary measures when transporting election materials.
After the polling days, the “free” part of the process means freedom of all parties to have legal possibilities for complaints while “fair” is the official and expeditious announcement of election results, impartial and expeditious treatment of any election complaints, impartial reports on the election results by the media and acceptance of election results by all stakeholders.
So what has been Zimbabwe’s pre-election period so far, based on these guiding principles?
“Zimbabwe so far has all the above in place with its Electoral Act in place. It also has its Electoral Commission in place which is the manager of the whole process,’’ the chairman of the Sadc Observer Mission to Zimbabwe, Mr Adadi Rajabu, said recently. He added that freedoms of movement are also in place with political parties being seen addressing rallies in all corners of the country without any disturbances while voters are also attending rallies of their choice freely.
There is also freedom of speech as all political parties are addressing rallies freely without interference from any quarter. The media are also covering the campaign trail and educating the electorate on the processes leading up to Election Day. Newspapers — both private and public — continue to feature election candidates, although approaches might differ.
In broadcasting, both radio and television platforms are awash with election material. Representatives of different parties are still being afforded access to debates and interviews that enable them to articulate their respective governance standpoints.
The voters register is again in place. Every registered citizen was given ample time to check whether their names appeared or not. Those whose names did not appear were given a chance to register, thereby allowing every citizen the right to vote.
The African Union has also endorsed this pre-election process emphasising that the problems that bedevilled Special Voting for members of the security forces did not detract the country from holding free and fair elections on July 31. As for the overall process, well this can only be judged after Election Day. Anyone commenting on this particular process would not be doing justice to the system as Zimbabweans are waiting anxiously to cast their vote on July 31.
In any case, the challenges surrounding the Special Vote were misconstrued to mean Zimbabwe was not in a position to hold credible elections come next week.
Investigations indicate that the logistical glitches were not precipitated by a flawed, incapacitated system, but emerged as a result of a strict adherence to the rule of law as well as operational hitches on the part of ballot printers. The Special Vote is provided for under Section 81A of the Electoral Act to enable those who will be on duty on Election Day to cast their ballots at least 16 days before the poll.
Prospective voters under this dispensation are required to apply for authorisation from ZEC. Once the Commission approves, it will dispatch a letter of authorisation to the applicant.
On the day of the Special Vote, each voter is expected to produce the letter and identification documents after which he or she will receive an envelope containing “Special Ballot Papers”. The name of the constituency and ward in which the voter is registered appears on the special papers. The papers are allocated to individual voters and cannot be used by anyone else.
This is vastly different from the conventional election where standard ballot papers can be distributed to the generality of voters.
Again, unlike the conventional election where the voter simply casts their ballot in the provided boxes, Special Voting requires the voter to mark an “X” against the candidate of their choice after which they should seal the ballot papers in a khaki envelop which they then deposit in a ballot box.
The process had progressed smoothly from the applications to the issuance of authorisation letters. Things, however, appeared to go wrong on the two days set aside for Special Voting. Ballot papers were delivered late, resulting in only 29 000 out of over 69 000 voters casting their ballots.
Sceptics tried to cast aspersions on the entire electoral process, saying Zimbabwe was not in a position to hold “free and fair” polls. But the explanation on what happened regarding the Special Vote is quite simple.
The courts were seized with 47 electoral cases. This meant ZEC could not immediately order the printing of ballot papers without the full list of contesting candidates.
It was only after the court had made rulings on the Friday preceding the weekend vote that the Commission drew up the final candidate list and subsequently ordered printing.
Effectively, ZEC had only 24 hours to start printing, organise the ballots into individual special voting envelopes, transport the papers and deploy officers to the 210 polling stations countrywide.
ZEC could only release the material in batches, starting with those which had been sorted first. In the end, the papers were delivered very late, thereby creating the impression that Zimbabwe was not geared for the plebiscite. If truth be told, the Commission did its best under the circumstances. What remains is the adoption of modalities that ensure those that were disenfranchised by the logistical hiccups are afforded the opportunity to vote. It is reassuring that ZEC will make these modalities known this week.
After all, an election is considered free “if every registered voter gets an opportunity to cast their votes” and fair “if on the polling day voters and representatives of political parties are able to access the respective polling stations”. According to experts, election observers are key in defining what “free and fair” elections. This means the observers themselves should understand their mandate and the terms “free and fair”.
In the execution of their duties, observers are required to gather information concerning the laws, processes and the institutions related to the conduct of elections and the overall electoral environment.
They should carry out an impartial and professional analysis of such information “as well as draw informed conclusions and recommendations about the electoral process based on the analysis of information gathered”.
Observers are expected to observer actual voting; counting and the post election period, paying close attention to processes and conduct. Although the definition of particular terms is standard internationally, the West’s definition of what free and fair elections are has, however, been relatively different. Western governments tend to disregard processes and conduct in countries they commune with and discredit the elections of nations in which they seek regime change.
The AU dispatched its long-term observer mission to Zimbabwe on June 18 and believes the country is in a position to hold free and fair elections.
“According to our observers on the ground, we believe that it is possible to have free and fair elections in Zimbabwe. But we cannot guarantee that it will be the most perfect or optimum of situations.
“The environment in Zimbabwe so far reassures us that the conditions are good for the election to be held on July 31,” said Dr Aisha Abdullahi, the AU Commissioner for Political Affairs.
Tonight, Star FM will between 7pm and 8pm feature a special interview with a top representative of the Sadc Election Observer Mission that is in the country for the July 31 harmonised elections. Don’t forget to tune in for this exciting programme which will delve deeper into the subject of free and fair elections.
Online Reporter