Freedom of information, association key for free and fair elections
Akey pillar in a genuinely free and fair election is information. As defined in the series on elections mounted by the Sapes Trust and the Research and Advocacy Unit (RAU), information refers to not only a free press and media, but also to the ways in which citizens are able to get the kinds of information they need to assess the desirability of the competing political parties.
Having a free press and media means, firstly that the state-owned media is non-partisan since its duty is to serve all citizens and all interests, and hence should obviously not show bias.
Secondly, for the independent press and media, whilst they might serve particular interests, they should not indulge in hate speech.
Access to information for the citizens means several things.
Firstly, attending meetings, rallies, and meeting with candidates is the way in which citizens can assess whether a party or a candidate is worth voting for.
It is the opportunity for citizens to question candidates, understand for themselves whether a candidate will deliver on the issues that matter to citizens.
Secondly, citizens should be able to freely attend any meeting they desire, and that political parties and candidates should not be prevented from having access to the citizenry: banning meetings and rallies is clearly an interference with the rights of citizens to freely participate in elections.
Zimbabwe has an unfortunate history of interfering with information.
In past elections, the country has seen denial of access by the state media to opposition political parties, the harassment of journalists – including violence against journalists – and the continuous resort to hate speech by political parties and candidates.
The banning of meetings, rallies, and the harassment of candidates occurs in every election, and the violence that often occurs around rallies and meetings results in citizens mostly not actively participating in all the important events that lead to up the poll.
This reduces citizens to passive participants in their most important civic duty, electing a government.
Information has two important aspects. Firstly, the provision of accurate news and analysis to the general citizenry, and obviously the ability of those in the press and media to investigate and report on elections.
Multiple recommendations have been made by domestic and international observers about the need to ensure a non-partisan stateowned press and media.
After all, the state press and media are paid for by the citizenry, and hence should be open to including all.
This has not happened as was pointed out by many speakers, but, of even greater concern,
THE latest April 2023 inflation statistics released by the Zimbabwe National Statistics Agency (ZimStat) show the weighted (blended) consumer price index (CPI) gaining 2.3% points on March 2023 rate of 0.1%.
The weighted CPI measures the average price changes of goods and services in US dollars and Zimbabwe dollar terms.
It became the official price index in February 2023 in response to an economy gravitating toward full dollarisation.
With 70% of estimated household expenditure being conducted in US dollars, it means that the US dollar price index accounts for more weight in the combined price index.
However, in annual terms (April 2022-April 2023), the blended inflation rate decelerated by 12.4 percentage points to settle at 75.2% from 87.6% in March 2023.
The decline in annual blended inflation outturn is in sync with cooling global inflation emanating from the Russia-Ukraine war spillovers. as the pointing out the degree to which journalists self-censor out of fear, and the risks in reporting and attending public meetings.
It was evident from the discussions that the freedoms of expression, movement, and association are severely restricted for the independent press and media.
In this dialogue, it was made patently obvious that there are multiple constraints placed on independent journalist, and the independent media.
Journalists are frequent targets for state repression such that many are unwilling to cover political events.
A primary factor inhibiting reporting was the general climate of fear that accompanies elections, but also there was the hostility towards journalists from both major political parties.
The comment was also made that the Private Voluntary Organisations (PVO) Amendment Bill seems to be having an inhibitory effect on civic activity generally, with the observation that there appeared to be a very minor civil society presence in witnessing voter registration.
The equally important aspect of information, that of the citizens’ participation in elections, is also a matter of deep concern.
Citizens have a right to freely attend meetings and rallies without fear, but it is evident that this is not possible presently, as meetings
The increase in April blended inflation rate is the biggest monthly jump since June 2022.
Elevated inflationary pressures particularly for Zimbabwe dollar transactions are emanating from the massive deterioration of the local currency against the US dollar in both markets.
In April 2023, the Zimbabwe dollar lost about 11.2% (monthly terms) and 34.7% (year-to-date, YTD terms) of its value against the US dollar (US dollar) in the official willing buyer-willing seller (WBWS) interbank market.
In alternative markets, the local unit of exchange suffered a severe decline as it erased 20% (monthly terms) and 55% (YTD terms) of its average value against the US dollar.
Largely due to forex liquidity challenges in official markets, businesses are benchmarking their Zimbabwe dollar prices at or above the parallel rate whereas RBZ allows only for charging Zimbabwe dollar prices, which are at most 10% above the official rate.
Parallel exchange rates are spiking in response to increased of the (Citizens Coalition for Change) CCC are banned or disrupted, sometimes violently.
It was noted that the CCC have had nearly 50 of their meetings and rallies banned, which is very different to the space the party was allowed in 2013 and 2018.
It was also noted, as in previous policy dialogues, that the levels of political violence seem to be increasing.
The levels of hate speech, and the casting of opposition political parties as enemies precludes the notion that this is a competition to persuade the citizenry which party has the best policies to govern the country and meet their aspirations.
It is replaced, as all pointed out, by a process that bears a greater resemblance to war than elections, and small wonder that citizens both fear elections and elect not to participate other than by voting.
Information has also been impeded by the process over the passing of the PVO Bill, and the disruption of normal civic activities in anticipation of the civic space been severely curtailed.
The most serious implication of the PVO Act will be its effect on domestic observation of elections and the inhibiting of independent collection of data — especially about the counting of votes — about the election.
The regulatory framework being proposed for registration is so burdensome that none of the domestic observer groups will be able to deploy observers in any meaningful way, and this will have a powerful knock-on effect on international observation.
A serious observation about the pre-election period is that it appears “dull”, meaning there is an absence of the general enthusiasm and excitement that usually accompanies elections in Zimbabwe.
This is obviously disturbing in the current state of the country, but the reasons do not seem clear: is this due to the complete collapse of political trust in the citizenry, the closing of the civic space, or fears about political violence, given the steady increase in the speech and violent rhetoric?
Whichever the reason, or reasons, the conditions do not suggest that the conditions around information as a crucial pPillar in elections – both freedom of information and freedom of association – are present currently. Zimbabwe dollar liquidity emanating from elevated Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe quasi-fiscal operations and rising fiscal spending ahead of the 2023 harmonised elections.
This, therefore, explains the rampant increase in Zimbabwe prices witnessed in April 2023.
Apart from the exchange rate pass-through to inflation, price inflation is also being fuelled by prolonged electricity load-shedding (rationing) schedules.
Generally, electricity is a critical production enabler, its scarcity is an albatross to domestic production as it increases business operating costs.
In addition, fragile global supply chains due to the Russia-Ukraine war are sustaining global inflation thereby disproportionately affecting net-importing nations like Zimbabwe through imported inflation -mainly high prices of food, fertilizers, and fuels.
The prevailing high inflationary environment is widening societal inequalities and plunging the majority of the population into a vicious circle of poverty.