1 zimbabwe election support network [zesn] - Nehanda Radio

Access to Electoral Processes and Participation by Groups With Special Needs
914 women participated in the 29 March Elections, 118 in the House of Assembly elections, 56
in Senatorial elections, and 740 in Council elections. Of those who contested in the House of
Assembly elections 30 were successful while 20 were successful at senatorial levels. It is also
instructive to note that among the 16 appointed chiefs there are no women, that out of the 3
appointed senatorial seats [from a total of 5 that should be appointed], there are also no
women while out of the 8 provincial Governors who have so far been appointed, only 2 are
women. The net impression is that women representation is still visibly on the low side
considering that women constitute 52 % of the population. No disability or special needs groups
or marginalized groups were appointed in both houses of assembly.
Petitions and Recounts
Failure to agree and accept election results led to candidates filling election petitions by both
MDC and ZANU PF losing candidates. In terms of Section 167 of the Electoral Act any
candidate may file an election petition with the Electoral Court complaining of the undue return
or election of any candidate for various reasons including corrupt illegal practices. ZANU PF
was challenging results in 53 constituencies while MDC T was contesting in 52 constituencies.
In its petitions, ZANU PF alleges, among other issues, that MDC bribed election officials while
the MDC T on the other hand alleged that ZANU PF used vote buying tactics and intimidation
resulting in voters failing to freely choose candidates of their choice. Constituencies in which
petitions were filed include Mutoko South, Bindura North, Umguza, Zvimba North, Murehwa
North and Masvingo.
In the wake of these petitions, the Zimbabwe Election Commission ordered a recount [of
presidential, parliamentary and senatorial and local authority results] through a notice (GN
58A/2008 of 12th April stating that in terms of section 67A of the Electoral Act that the
Commission was of the opinion that reasonable grounds exist for believing that a miscount of
votes occurred that would have affected the result of the elections concerned. The need for
these recounts was attributed to inconsistencies noted between the V11 and V23 forms
submitted by election officials to the ZEC national command centre.
Recounting officially started on 19 April 2008 despite MDC efforts to block the recounting
through litigation. It was disquieting to note that the exercise took place before the initial
presidential results were announced and remained shrouded in secrecy and controversy in
spite of calls from various stakeholders including ZESN to have the results released.
The opening of votes started late in most centers, reportedly as late as 1830hrs in areas such
as Lupane. Some of the delays were reportedly caused by disputes between polling officials
and MDC party agents who alleged that ballot boxes had been tampered with. Disturbing
reports of inconsistencies were experienced in Chiredzi North where a total of four polling
stations and a total of 184 ballots were reportedly unaccounted for.
At Chigonono Polling station, ballots for the Senate and House of Assembly reportedly ran out
resulting in more ballots being cast for Local Government and Presidential elections. In the
same constituency, 7 Senate ballots were reportedly discovered in the House of Assembly
ballot box and another 7 House of Assembly ballots found in the Senate box. These mix ups of
ballot papers, inconsistencies and differences in figures raised a lot of questions about the
training capacity, competence and integrity of the polling officials in effectively running elections
in a truly transparent and independent manner.
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