Successive Australian parliaments have shown a strong commitment to Zimbabwe’s democratic independence and development. The Australian Parliament was therefore pleased to respond to the Zimbabwean Government’s welcome to send observers to its parliamentary elections held on 24 and 25 June 2000. The delegation comprised three members of the Australian Parliament and three support staff.

While our role was simply to observe the conduct of the elections – not to supervise those elections or to become involved in the electoral process – we were told by virtually all the people we visited that the presence of international observers was welcome, and contributed to an improved environment in the days immediately before and during the weekend poll.

Upon its arrival in Zimbabwe the delegation was very well briefed by the Australian High Commission, representatives of Zimbabwe’s political parties, electoral administration, civic groups, media, war veterans, farming and business communities. Delegation members then split up into three teams which spent between four and six days in the provinces of Zimbabwe, including the polling days on Saturday 24 June and Sunday 25 June and the counting day on Monday 26 June.

The three teams made a point of visiting some of the more remote areas of the country, as well as the main population centres, including Harare and Bulawayo. One team travelled through the Mashonaland West and Mashonaland Central provinces, another travelled through the Manicaland and Mashonaland East provinces, and the third travelled through the Midlands, Matebeleland South and Masvingo provinces. Details on the areas visited by the delegation are listed in the appendix to this statement.

In addition to the groups referred to earlier, the delegation spoke in the field to members of the public, farmers and their workers, war veterans occupying farms, party officials and candidates, senior police officers and government administrators, and on the polling and counting days, the staff, police, party agents and monitors at the polling places. The delegation thanks those people for their time.

As a nation Australia encourages the growth of democracy wherever it can.
Our values have been shaped by our nation’s commitment to: the rule of law; multi-party democracy; the separation of powers between the Parliament, the executive and the judiciary; transparent and accountable processes; a strong and independent media; and an electoral system which allows all citizens to make informed choices, and to exercise freely their right to vote and to stand for election. It is with those values in mind that we have observed Zimbabwe’s elections.

As has been widely documented, the months leading up to the elections were marked by a systematic and widespread campaign of violence and intimidation, particularly in rural areas. Intimidation and violence ranged from verbal taunts and acts of menace to beatings and destruction of property, harassment, rape and murder.

One of our delegation teams met with a party polling agent who had been physically assaulted two days before polling commenced. The delegation met with non-government candidates and campaigners who had been forced into hiding in the weeks before the election, and whose families had experienced physical assault and destruction of property.

Some delegation members witnessed widespread intimidation by war veterans of farmers and their workers in the days preceding the election (in the form of directions to farm workers as to where they were to vote and for whom).

The delegation shares the widespread international and domestic concern with police inaction and their failure to uphold the rule of law, particularly in rural areas, during the lead-up to the election. This contrasts markedly with the visible police presence at every polling and counting station visited by the delegation, which contributed greatly to the generally peaceful conduct of voting and counting on Saturday, Sunday and Monday 24-26 June.

The delegation believes that the violence and intimidation which so badly compromised the pre-election campaigning and voter education must have influenced the result in some constituencies.

Despite selective reporting in individual newspapers, varying political views were at least available in Zimbabwe’s print media. However, non-government candidates had minimal access to both broadcast time and favourable reporting on Zimbabwe’s (government-controlled) electronic media. This imbalance was not conducive to the conduct of election campaigning by non-government candidates or to effective voter education.

The delegation visited a wide range of polling stations and counting centres (see appendix), rigorously examined procedures and spoke with electoral staff, police, the parties’ polling agents, monitors and others at each location. Despite witnessing some incidences of intimidation, the delegation was generally satisfied with the orderly conduct of the voting on Saturday 24 June and Sunday 25 June and with the count of votes on Monday 26 June.

Concerns have been expressed about electoral fraud. The delegation is of the opinion that in the polling stations it visited, with regard to the votes placed in the ballot boxes on Saturday and Sunday, it would have been difficult to tamper with or add to those votes in any significant way (however, the delegation is not in a position to form a judgement about the integrity of the postal voting process). Multiple voting did not appear to be a factor. The delegation is also of the opinion that those same votes were accurately counted on Monday 26 June in a very public process.

While some irregularities were noted, from its observations the delegation does not think that that those irregularities were widespread.

The delegation did, however, have some concerns about the administration of the voting and the count. The accuracy and availability of the electoral rolls were criticised by many people the delegation spoke to during their observations.

Several polling stations the delegation visited on Saturday 24 June had still not received supplementary rolls (which contained the names of people who had registered late). It is likely that many registered voters were denied a vote as a consequence. More seriously, many people who had registered to vote – but whose names did not appear on the published rolls – were turned away from polling stations despite producing a receipt. While such people were cleared to vote at a late stage, that advice only filtered through to many rural polling stations late on Saturday 24 June or on Sunday 25 June. In general, the proportion of electors turned away at polling stations visited by the delegation was disturbingly high, ranging from 10 to 16 percent.

The conduct of the voting was hampered by inconsistent procedures and the last-minute nature of many important election preparations, including four changes to electoral processes by proclamation in the days leading up to polling day. For example, the full list of polling stations was only published on Friday 23 June – the day before polling commenced. At that time many domestic election monitors had still not received their accreditation. Domestic monitors were thus absent from many rural polling stations the delegation visited on Saturday 24 June, when the bulk of the voting took place.

In some polling stations the delegation visited in the Mberengwa East and West constituencies (in the Midlands province), the only polling agents accredited were those representing the ZANU PF party. With no non-government polling agents and no domestic monitors, safeguards against intimidation and electoral fraud in those polling stations were obviously limited.

By international standards, the processing of voters and the conduct of the count was laborious. The delegation was greatly impressed by the dedication and professionalism of those presiding officers and some polling officials who worked virtually non-stop from Friday evening to the close of counting on Tuesday. However, it seemed to the delegation that much of the load placed on those people was unnecessary. For example, counting processes which saw each ballot paper manually counted up to 30 times (while the number of ballot papers was being verified) could easily be streamlined without jeopardising the integrity of the ballot.

The day after the election results were announced (62 seats to the ruling ZANU PF party, 57 to the opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) and 1 to the ZANU Ndongo party) appear to have been relatively peaceful. The delegation hopes that the situation will remain calm, and that the creation of a substantial parliamentary opposition in Zimbabwe will give the country a base on which to build a democratic future. In the absence of mechanisms and precedents to accommodate a multi-party system, how well the new environment is managed will depend on the approach taken by the current leadership.

The delegation will present a full report of its visit to the Australian Parliament in the parliamentary sittings commencing in August. On behalf of the delegation I would like to thank Australia’s High Commissioner to Zimbabwe, Her Excellency Mrs Denise Fisher, Second Secretary (Political) Ms Jenny Dee and the other staff at the Commission for their outstanding support and hospitality at very short notice. Their professionalism, enthusiasm and energy were an essential factor in enabling us to complete our task.

The delegation is particularly grateful to those Zimbabweans we spoke to for their openness and their hospitality. Many of those people have been subjected to unconscionable stress and intimidation during the election period, and we wish them and Zimbabwe a stable and democratic future.

International observers, including from Zimbabwe, have always been welcome to attend Australian elections and the delegation would encourage a continuing exchange of views on the practise of democratic elections.

(contact: Senator Alan Ferguson on ph. 0061 419 836 507)

29 June 2000

In the days leading up to polling, delegation members held discussions in the cities and towns of Greater Harare, Chinhoyi, Karoi, Kariba, Mhangura, Guruve, Selous, Bulawayo, Plum Tree, Zvishavane and surrounding areas. On the polling and counting days (Saturday 25 to Monday 27 June) delegation members observed proceedings in the following constituencies:

Negomo Primary School

Mushoshoma Primary School

Mahuwe Primary School

Impinge Farm Store

Mobile (visited at Gwakwe School)

Kapatamukombe Primary School

Kahungwe Primary School

Muzarabani Hall

Mhene Primary School

Mukwengure Primary School

Mobile no. 1 (visited at Ashford Farm School)

Chakanetsa Primary School

Mutungagore Secondary School

Mutwa Primary School

Karuyana Primary School

Tngenhamo Secondary School

Bemberi Primary School

Cowley Pre-School

Matedzi Primary School

Chamakudo School

Mataga Council Hall

Makuva Primary School

Mobile

Pamushana Primary School

Mberengwa District Registry

Masunda Primary School

Morgenster Mission

Chikarudzo Primary School

Muchakata Sub Office

Njovo Primary School

Mavizhu Primary School

Tugwane Secondary School

Muchibwa Primary School

Renco Hall

Musvovi Primary School

Penhalonga Business Centre

St Georges Muchena Primary School

Peplow Primary School

Folkington Primary School

Chirimutsitu Primary School

Mukuwapasi Primary School

Quagga Kloof Primary School

Avondale Primary School

Blakiston Primary School

Mt Pleasant High School

Prince Edward School

Queen Elizabeth High School

Selborne Routledge Primary School

Strathaven Shopping Centre

Guruve South Constituency (Shinje Office)

Mazowe West Constituency (Amandas Primary School)

Masvingo South Constituency (Renco Hall)

Harare Central Constituency (Alan Wilson High School)