Doubts over Zim’s capacity to hold credible polls

President Emmerson Mnangagwa finally announced that the elections will be held in July or August this year. In a short while, Parliament will close for three months to begin serious campaigning for the poll, and, as has been too frequently the case in past elections, this is usually the period in which serious political violence takes place.

The quality of elections in Zimbabwe have come under increased scrutiny in recent decades.

Given that elections are the most visible expression of democracy, polling day presents an opportunity for the legal contestation of political power.

Yet, elections are often contentious and regularly fall short of “free and fair” status, as has frequently been the case in Zimbabwe over the past two decades.

Fear and intimidation have been used to prevent “opposition” voters from casting their ballots.

A number of reports, case studies and anecdotal evidence, suggest that electoral violence suppresses voter turnout.

Beginning seven months ago, in August 2022, SAPES and (the Research Advocacy Unit) RAU have been holding policy dialogues on elections, forming the basis for an audit of the country’s readiness for elections.

The issues covered critical aspects of the electoral process, from the narrow issues involved in delimitation and the voters’ roll, to the importance of nonpartisan action by the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission (Zec) and the courts.

They have also covered the broader issues of citizen engagement, the issue of political violence, and the shrinking of civil space through the mooted legislation on NGOs and “patriotism”.

In every one of these dialogues, the experts raised fears about violence, citing incidents that were taking place, ranging from murders, assaults, torture, assaults, intimidation, unlawful arrest and detention, and disruption of legitimate political meetings.

The issue of political violence was discussed in a policy dialogue in November 2022, and this policy Dialogue picked up this theme, looking at whether things are improving or getting worse.

The dialogue brought together a panel of experts on political violence who discussed this issue, organised around the concept of insulation.

This refers to the idea that citizens can freely participate in every aspect of an election, exercising all the freedoms guaranteed by the constitution, and especially without fear of political violence.

The keynote presentation was given by Jestina Mukoko (Zimbabwe Peace Project director) and the discussant was Rashid Mahiya (Heal Zimbabwe Trust director).

Roselyn Hanzi (Zimbabwe Lawyers for Human Rights director) was due to join, but was prevented by connectivity difficulties.

There is paradox currently in Zimbabwe’s democracy when it comes to elections in 2023.

On the one hand we have the evidence of mounting political violence and electoral malpractices, but on the other hand we have the major opposition party, the Citizens Coalition for Change (CCC) insisting that elections must take place in the hope of winning against all odds.

Zimbabwe has a long history of a one-party and dominant political party where politics and economics have been conflated.

As a result, politics in Zimbabwe has been exclusive, intolerant of opposition, and militarised.

As one speaker in an earlier policy dialogue put it, only in Zimbabwe is the opposition treated as an enemy.

The issue for the policy dialogue on elections held on February 16 was whether political violence had increased or decreased since the last discussion on political violence held in November 2022.

As pointed out, in all the previous policy dialogues on elections virtually every speaker expressed fears that the violence in 2023 will be severe, possibly even reaching the levels of elections in 2002 and 2008.

In his opening remarks Ibbo Mandaza referred to recent comments by two citizens, Sipho Malunga and Nigel Chanakira.

Malunga tweeted, “It will not be and cannot be a free and fair election if opposition candidates are unjustly detained and violently brutalised, opposition campaign rallies a banned, the voter’s roll is not publicly accessible, voter registration is suppressed and Zec is not independent. It’s a charade!”.

In another tweet, Chanakira commented: “My fundamental question remains, why are we bothering having this election? Whom are we trying to fool?”

Since 2000, Zimbabwe is a glaring example of the use of political violence in elections.

Electoral violence is no longer limited to general and national elections.

It was underlined that by-elections generated high levels of violence, intimidation, and insecurity, as was discussed in an earlier policy dialogue on elections.

Particular points were raised about the violence that took place in Budiriro and Gokwe, and the inability of opposition parties to hold meetings.

Both speakers concurred on the levels of fear, the forced attendance at political meetings, the partisan role of traditional leaders, and, importantly, the lack of urgency by the Zimbabwe Republic Police in attending to reports of serious violence.

It was stressed that this apparent impunity increases the levels of fear in the communities.

As was commented: “They are untouchable and they can easily remind you of what capacity they have to cause harm to you, and communities have experienced… the threats are not empty, and because of that there is always this fear.”

They also commented that election-related violence is not limited to physical violence but includes other coercive means, such as the threat of violence, intimidation, and harassment.

This is seen in the selective access to resources such as food aid and agricultural inputs based on political party affiliation.

Examples of this were given by both speakers in the discussion.

Additional concerns were raised about the potential role of the artisanal miners in political violence and the role that partisan access to resources plays in ensuring political support in the communities.

Concerns were also expressed about the possible deployment of members of the youth service, and the deployment of non-community persons into local communities.

Concerns were raised about the differential effect of the violence and intimidation for women.

Electoral violence and fear of violence excludes women from having a voice and participating in political life and governance processes and has been the major cause of young women refusing to participate in politics in Zimbabwe as noted by one of the speakers.

One final comment came from the floor and concerned the need to deal with the unfinished business of the coup and the judgements that validated this.

The clear conclusion was that things have not improved since November 2022, and are actually worsening, with fears that political violence might get considerably worse the closer to the poll later in the year.