Introducing the SADC Check List

Zimbabwe's parliamentary elections are now a matter of weeks away. The country is in "election mode" with a final decision still awaited from the MDC whether to participate, and all manner of fraud, violence and behind-the-scenes machinations going on in the ZANU (PF) camp as contestants battle it out through their primaries.

ZANU (PF) has rushed through parliament a whole range of new legislation obviously intended to be in place for the March elections. The laws are detailed and complex, and not easy to follow. The Electoral Act alone runs to 116 pages and then there is the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission Act, not to mention many other statutes that have a major bearing on the conduct of the elections. The average Zimbabwean feels thoroughly confused by all this, and the international community hardly knows what to make of it all. Quite deliberately so. This is precisely the effect ZANU (PF) wishes to achieve, and from this confusion they intend to convince the world that the electoral reforms bring Zimbabwe into compliance with the standards for democratic elections laid down by SADC in Mauritius in August 2004.

So does the raft of new legislation introduced by ZANU (PF) really help to "level the playing field" as they claim ? How does Zimbabwe match up to the regional (SADC) standards to which Mugabe signed up last year ? What prospect is there of a "fair and free" election in March, in this environment and under this regime ?

SOKWANELE -ZVAKWANA understands these to be crucial questions upon which the destiny of Zimbabwe, not to say the peace and prosperity of the whole Southern African region, depends. Hence it is absolutely essential that the haze and confusion now surrounding the election issue, be dispersed. The people of Zimbabwe and their friends in the region - who only want for them freedom, democracy and peace - must be able to see through the smoke-and-mirror tactics of those who are deliberately creating confusion to serve their own narrow and selfish interests.

For this reason SOKWANELE-ZVAKWANA have studied the new raft of ZANU (PF) legislation very closely and carried out their own careful research to establish objectively where the truth lies. And now we present you with a summary of our findings, not judging ZANU (PF) performance by some foreign, imported, standards, but by the very standards to which they claim to subscribe. Point by point we measure the ZANU (PF) government's performance against the SADC standards.

For all those who wish to be well-informed about the Zimbabwean elections and to be able to make a sound judgment about just how "fair and free" they are likely to be, this short document is a must.

The full document, titled 'Zimbabwe Electoral Legislation: Check List against SADC Principles Governing Democratic Elections' is available for downloading from www.sokwanele.com and www.zwnews.com. If you would like to receive a copy by email, please request it from sokwanele_zim@yahoo.com. (The Check List is an MSWord document, just over 18 pages in length, contains no images, and is 108KB in size).