1 zimbabwe election support network [zesn] - Nehanda Radio

ecommended that the doctrine of secrecy that is applied to other electoral processes must
also apply to postal voting.
Conflict Management
The jurisdiction of the Electoral Court is restricted to the hearing of appeals and petitions under
the Electoral Act. The Act requires the Court to determine election petitions within six months of
the date of the its presentation. Over the years, the Electoral Act has not been able to clear pre
and post election disputes within the very tight time frame stipulated. In future, to enable the
Electoral Court to resolve disputes expeditiously before the election takes place there is need
for a competent, effective, independent and impartial Judiciary and electoral institutions. There
is also need to complement the judges of the Electoral Court with staff, equipment and
adequate resources. The Court should be given jurisdiction to resolve disputes before the
election has taken place.
Electoral Stakeholders
Political Parties
Towards run off, the holding of rallies was a preserve of the ruling ZANU-PF, whilst the MDC-T
political rallies were reportedly systematically disrupted by the ZANU PF militia and youth,
mostly with the police as passive witnesses. Hate speech, incitement of violence, and threats of
war characterized electoral campaigns-with the ruling party presidential candidate threatening
to go back to war if he lost the election to the MDC presidential candidate, whom he considered
a puppet of the West. As a result, the 27 June poll, which was supposed to be a run-off, turned
out to be a one-horse race after the withdrawal of the MDC presidential candidate on 22 June
citing escalating state-sponsored violence against his supporters. Given these observations, it
is recommended that:
• Political parties must walk the talk of political tolerance. The message of zero tolerance
to political violence must cascade from the top leadership structures to the grassroots
with the political leaders particularly exhorted to publicly denounce political violence in
both words and action.
• For the sake of national social healing those who were involved in the perpetration of
violence must be investigated and the law enforced without any interference from the
two main political parties.
• All political parties, the electronic and print media must be barred from using
inflammatory language and hate speech. The Electoral Laws Amendment Act 2008
[Section 133A] which specifies electoral offences and the SADC Principles and
Guidelines Governing Democratic Elections must be enforced with vigour, culprits
facing disqualification or huge fines.
• To boost political tolerance, political parties are urged to practice effective internal
democracy such that intra party violence that poses the greatest threat to the conduct
of elections can be reduced if not avoided. They should abstain from imposing candidates.
• Political parties should also desist from imposing candidates, vote buying and
manipulating state functions and resources for political gain. They should abstain from
vote buying or any other dishonest or unethical election campaign conduct.
Election Observation
While under the new provisions of the Electoral Laws Amendment Act 2008, observers are
accredited through the Electoral Commission’s Observation Accreditation Committee and not
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