Veritas, a Zimbabwe based legal think-tank, is arguing the Zanu PF government to complete the ratification of the African Charter on Democracy, Elections and Governance (ACDEG) before the 2023 general elections in order to promote free and fair elections.
Zimbabwe signed ACDEG on March 21, 2018, but has not yet ratified it, according to the African Union (AU) status list for the charter which is on its website.
"Whatever the reason for the delay in ratification, government risks the accusation that it no longer subscribes to the ideals of democracy, free and fair elections and good governance embodied in the charter," Veritas said.
Yes ratifying the AU charter would give organisations like Veritas one more yard stick with which to measure Zimbabwe’s election process. But if the truth be told, Zimbabwe elections have routinely failed to meet even the most basic and common sense requirements.
ZEC is required by law to produce a verified voters’ roll at least one month before the elections, for example. In the country’s 41 years of independence, ZEC has not only failed to produce a verified voters’ roll on time but has never ever produced a verifies voters’ roll. Never ever!
Since December last year ZEC has been on a “mass voter registration exercise”. If the commission was committed to producing a verified voters’ roll, it would have the voters roll by Polling Station available for inspection and verification. No such luck!
Zanu PF Acting National Political Commissar, Patrick Chinamasa, announce in June that the three million Zimbabweans in the diaspora, by government’s own report, will once again be denied the vote. During his UN General Assembly visit in September 2018, his first as President of Zimbabwe, President Mnangagwa promised diaspora vote in 2023. Now the regime has reverted to its default setting of cherry picking who can and cannot vote.
According to ZEC’s results President Mnangagwa won the rigged 2018 elections 2.4 million votes or 50.8% of the cast votes which is far less than the 3 million in the diaspora denied the vote. So 3 out of 8 potential voters or 37% were denied the vote.
The EU had a 240 member Election Observer Mission in Zimbabwe for the 2018 elections and they dismissed the whole election as a farce.
“Notably, major shortcomings in the pre-election environment impacted on the free expression of the will of electors, state resources were misused in favour of the incumbent and coverage by state media was heavily biased in favour of the ruling party,” stated EU Mission Final Report.
“Further, the electoral commission lacked full independence and appeared to not always act in an impartial manner. The final results as announced by the Electoral Commission contained numerous errors and lacked adequate traceability, transparency and verifiability.
“Finally, the restrictions on political freedoms, the excessive use of force by security forces and abuses of human rights in the post-election period undermined the corresponding positive aspects during the pre-election campaign. As such, many aspects of the 2018 elections in Zimbabwe failed to meet international standards.”
The EU Mission report gave a list of recommended reforms, most of them are obvious and common sense, to be implemented to ensure free and fair elections in future. Zanu PF has ignored the report and has not implemented even one reform.
”With Zimbabwe coming up for a United Nations Universal Periodic Review and also seeking admission to the Commonwealth and needing foreign investment, Veritas urges government to deposit the Instrument of Ratification of the charter at AU headquarters in Addis Ababa,” continued Veritas.
The Commonwealth was ready to readmit Zimbabwe if the country’s 2018 elections were free, fair and credible. Zanu PF rigged the elections and the application was thrown out!
President Mnangagwa and his Zanu PF regime are illegitimate per se because the 2018 election process did not meet international standards. The regime is content with the modicum of legitimacy derived from the following:
- Both AU and SADC have endorsed the flawed and illegal 2018 elections as “substantially free and fair”. The continental and regional bodies are renowned for measuring elections with a foot-long yard stick instead of the international recognised standard three-foot long yard stick.
- By participating in droves the Zimbabwe opposition gave credibility to the flawed and illegal elections; if Zimbabweans themselves are happy with the one-foot long yard stick standard, it is for Zimbabweans alone to decide and outsiders must respect the decision.
Zanu PF is blatantly rigging the 2023 elections and is laying the ground work to get away with it. The regime’s excuse for denying the diaspora vote is that party officials cannot campaign for support because of the sanctions imposed by the West which include travel ban. A feeble excuse, one does not condescend to punishing his children because they quarrelled with the neighbour.
Still, Zanu PF has already roped in SADC leaders to believe sanctions are the root cause of Zimbabwe’s economic and political problems. The regime is working on getting both SADC and AU turning a blind-eye, at the very least, to Zanu PF’s blatant cherry picking of who can and cannot vote.
Meanwhile Zanu PF taken full advantage of the incompetence within the opposition camp to sow even more division and confusion. Besides the few gravy train seats and the share of annual Political Party Finance Act payout Mnangagwa added generous perks to those who join POLAD; to entice the opposition to participate in the 2023 elections regardless how flawed and illegal process happened to be.
Indeed instead of wasting time on getting Zanu PF to ratify the AU charter, Veritas would do well educating the ordinary Zimbabweans on the need for such basics as verified voters’ roll and the folly of participating in flawed elections only to give legitimacy to the vote rigging party and its surrogate opposition sell-out partners.
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