V. Electoral Institutions and the Legal EnvironmentFor the first time in its history Zimbabwe will be holding simultaneous presidential and parliamentary elections, as well as elections for members of the senate and for local councillors, all on the same day. The main contenders for the presidency are the incumbent, Robert Mugabe, leader of ZANU-PF, Morgan Tsvangirai, leader of the MDC (Tsvangirai) faction, and Simba Makoni, former minister of finance and member of ZANU-PF’s politburo who is running as an independent.17 The 210-seat House of Assembly will be contested by seven parties including ZANU-PF, the MDC (Tsvangirai) faction, and the breakaway faction of the MDC led by Arthur Mutambara, as well as several independent candidates.18 The official campaign period began after nominees presented their papers to the nomination courts on February 14, 2008. The main political parties officially launched their political campaigns soon afterwards. On September 18, 2007, parliament unanimously passed Constitutional Amendment Act No. 18, which made significant changes to the country’s electoral framework. Among other things, the amendment set out the framework for synchronized parliamentary and presidential elections, increased the number of constituencies in the country from 120 to 210, and empowered the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission (ZEC), the body responsible for overseeing the elections, to delimit parliamentary and local constituencies.19 The Electoral Laws Amendment Act came into effect on January 11.20 The Act made several improvements to the existing electoral laws. For example, it abolished the Electoral Supervisory Commission, which was previously in charge of managing the election process, thereby eliminating any confusion between it and the ZEC,21 and ensured that polling stations were located in places readily accessible to the public.22 Registration is now to be conducted on a continuous basis to keep the voters’ roll up-to-date.23 Crucially the new law has a section explicitly and unequivocally prohibiting intimidating practices during the campaign period.24 At the same time as the Electoral Laws Amendment Act, parliament amended other laws likely to have an effect on the electoral environment including the Public Order and Security Act (POSA), the Access to Information and Protection of Privacy Act (AIPPA), and the Broadcasting Services Act (BSA) (referred to later in this report). Despite the improvements to the electoral laws, the late passage of the legislation created an extremely tight timetable for campaigning and for the ZEC to prepare for voting day scheduled for March 29, 2008: It allowed only three months of preparation for the country’s first synchronized elections. It also left very little time for key changes to be put into place, including changes to the composition of the electoral commissions as required by Constitutional Amendment No.18. Due to the increased number of parliamentary seats introduced by Constitutional Amendment No.18, a fresh delimitation exercise was carried out by the ZEC, but it was beset by problems. The Delimitation Report, which highlighted the new constituencies and wards (voting precincts), was only finalized on January 17, leaving no time for political parties to assess the changes or debate them in parliament (section 61 A (8) of the constitution provides that the president must table the preliminary delimitation report in parliament, but there was no initial debate on the report, and only one copy of the final report was presented before parliament, which adjourned before the report could be debated).25 The lack of debate around the delimitation of boundaries opened the ZEC to accusations that it had delimited the constituencies and wards in favor of the ruling party.26 Further, as Human Rights Watch has found, the amendments to the electoral laws did not address several crucial issues that have a significant effect on the electorate, such as questions over the ZEC’s independence and impartiality, the commission’s exclusive control over voter education, bias in the accreditation of observers, and onerous proof of residency requirements that effectively disenfranchise a significant number of voters. Under the Electoral Laws Amendment Act, voters will vote at assigned polling stations in their wards (of which there are 1,958 in total), and not at any polling station of their choosing within their constituencies, as in previous elections. As of December 4, 2007, 5.6 million people were registered to vote. 17 A fourth candidate, Langton Towungana, is also contesting the presidency. 18 Zimbabwe Electoral Support Network (ZESN), “Pre-election Update No.4,” February 18, 2008. 19 Constitutional Amendment Act No. 18, 2007 (distributed by Veritas Trust, Zimbabwe). Previously, a Delimitation Commission, made up of presidential appointees, delimited the district boundaries for the 2005 elections, while the Registrar General organized the inspection of the voters’ roll and the nomination courts. 20 The Act amends the Electoral Act of 2005 and the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission Act of 2005 and brings them into line with recent provisions brought about by Constitutional Amendment No.18. 21 Constitution of Zimbabwe, 1979, Section 61. 22 Electoral Laws Amendment Act, 2007 (distributed by Veritus Trust), clause 38. 23 Ibid., clause 19. In addition, the commission is given the power to provide, within seven days after calling of the election concerned, to every political party and candidate contesting the election and every accredited observer group, one electronic copy of every voters’ roll to be used in the election. 24 Electoral Laws Amendment Act, 2007, clause 71. 25 Human Rights Watch interview with Noel Kututwa, ZESN chairperson, Harare, February 7, 2008. 26 Human Rights Watch interviews with MDC and ZESN officials, Harare, February 4–24, 2008. |