EISA in the news 2008

Updated 2008

The stories below feature instances where EISA has been cited in the media.
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July

Meeting on electoral disputes starts today
Pius Rugonzibwa| Daily News | 21 July 2008
An international conference on the Role and Challenges of Civil Society Engagement in Post-Election Disputes Resolutions starts in Dar es Salaam today. The conference brings together various participants from civil society organizations around Africa...The conference has been organized by the Christian Social Service Commission, in collaboration with Tanzania Ecumenical Group (TEDG), on behalf of the Electoral Institute of Southern Africa (EISA).

Veil of secrecy shrouds MDC, Zanu-PF talks
10 July 2008 | SABC News
The Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) and Zanu-PF met at an undisclosed location in Tshwane today for the first time since the controversial one-man presidential run-off election two weeks ago. Victor Shale Eisa [sic], from the Electoral Institute of Southern Africa, says: “These are preliminary talks that are meant to pave way for substantive talks to bring two beleaguered parties together.”

PAC national conference kicks off today
3 July 2008 | SABC News
The Pan African Nationalist Congress (PAC) will hold its national congress from today. It aims to review its constitution and organisational structure... The party says even though the list of candidates is not yet available, which it says is with the Electoral Institute of Southern Africa (EISA) - Mphahlele has been nominated for the next five years in the event the amendments to the constitution are agreed upon.

May

Zimbabwe: Mounting violence does not speed up deployment of election monitors
29 May 2008 | IRIN
No independent African electoral observers have been invited to monitor Zimbabwe's presidential run-off election on 27 June, and the bodies approved by President Robert Mugabe's government are not yet at full strength, Dieudonne Tshiyoyo, a programme officer at the South Africa-based Electoral Institute of Southern Africa (EISA), told IRIN.

April

SADC leaders urged to persuade Mugabe to step down
24 April 2008, 10:30
Khabele Matlosa says an urgent solution should be found to Zimbabwe's crisis. Zimbabwe's state-run Herald newspaper says a unity government led by Mugabe may be the best way to break Zimbabwe's post-election deadlock. The newspaper says it is clear that no side won a majority in the presidential election on March 29.

'Mbeki's quiet diplomacy losing support'
April 14, 2008, 10:30
Senior Adviser and Researcher at the Electoral Institute of South Africa, Dr Khabele Matlosa, says President Thabo Mbeki's quiet diplomacy strategy in dealing with Zimbabwe is beginning to loose support within the Southern African Development Community (SADC).

Joint appeal to SADC Heads summit on the crisis in Zimbabwe.
Sunday, 13 April 2008 16:24
From South Africa, we have a post-election statement issued today by EISA; the NGO which promotes credible elections and democratic governance in Southern Africa. EISA's statement follows an interim statement about its regional election observer mission to the 2008 harmonised elections in Zimbabwe.

Zimbabwe: Election Observers Are Not Solidarity Missions
Verna Rainers | allAfrica.com | INTERVIEW | 3 April 2008
Zimbabwe’s elections have been given a stamp of approval by a number of observer missions from intergovernmental organizations invited by the Zimbabwean government. But the government excluded many civil society monitoring groups from its invitation list. One of those was the Electoral Institute of Southern Africa (EISA), which operates under the patronage of former Botswana president Ketumile Masire and since 2004 has observed elections in South Africa, Malawi, Botswana Mozambique, Namibia, Mauritius, Tanzania, the Democratic Republic of Congo and Zambia...AllAfrica’s Verna Rainers interviewed EISA’s executive director, Denis Kadima, by telephone...

Zimbabwe: Delays in election results puts country on edge
1 April 2008 | IRIN/ReliefWeb
Three days after Zimbabwe's March 29 poll, rumour, speculation and uncertainty are the only tangible results of an election that has been billed as President Robert Mugabe's final stand after 28 years in office... The Electoral Institute of Southern Africa (EISA), said the elections process had fallen far short of democratic standards.

Zimbabwe: Monitors Question Fairness of Election
allAfrica.com | 1 April 2008
An experienced southern African election monitoring group has judged Zimbabwe's electoral process "severely wanting in respect of fairness. "The Electoral Institute of Southern Africa, which has monitored elections in most southern African countries over the last five years, issued a seven-page report which said that compared to previous elections in Zimbabwe, last Saturday's polls were "partly free in that there existed a more peaceful environment allowing for freedom of association, freedom of assembly, freedom of speech."

March

Zimbabwe: Reporters Fill Gaps in Polls Coverage
31 March 2008
Denis Kadima, executive director of the Electoral Institute of Southern Africa (EISA), said that People can campaign wherever they want... and it does not seem like there is any attempt to harass people.... Even the opposition parties and candidates recognize that there is a great improvement.

Zimbabweans await election outcome
Mail & Guardian Online | 31 March 2008
Zimbabweans woke up on Monday morning still not knowing if a new future had dawned on thecountry plagued by political and economic strife. The Electoral Institute of Southern Africa declared the election to be "partially free" but not fair. A full statement by the Eisa observer mission was expected on Monday.

MDC will not accept poll results if Mugabe wins
SABC News | March 31, 2008
The Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) says that it will not accept the outcome of the country's presidential election if Zimbabwean president Robert Mugabe claims victory. The party has accused the government of re-engineering the results of both the parliamentary and presidential elections in favour of the Zanu-PF party. Meanwhile, the Electoral Institute of Southern Africa (EISA), says the slow release of poll results in the Zimbabwe election has heightened fears of rigging. Eisa says the elections were only partly free, lacked transparency and was not fair. Eisa sent out 25 observers to Zimbabwe for the elections.

Zimbabwe: Question Marks Hang Over Polls
allAfrica.com | Verna Rainers and John Allen | 29 March 2008
As Zimbabweans queued in long lines to vote on Saturday, an experienced African election monitor warned that they went to the polls with many "question marks" hanging over whether the elections could be free and fair. Denis Kadima, executive director of the Electoral Institute of Southern Africa (EISA), told AllAfrica in an interview from Harare that there was a positive side to the elections.

Zimbabwe Votes in Unfair & Non-Free Environment
MISA Regional Statement on March 29 Zimbabwe Elections
Kaitira Kandjii | 28 March 2008
Zimbabwe goes to polls over the weekend to choose a new government. If voted into power ZANU-PF would have been the sole party in power for the last 27 years, and Mr Mugabe, President for six consecutive terms. While the outcome of this electoral process cannot be determined now, it is well within the rights of MISA to express concern on a number of issues that affect the freeness and fairness of the coming 29 March elections. The prevailing media and freedom of expression environment in Zimbabwe remains a major area of concern that renders the coming elections questionable as far as critical and alternative voices have not been allowed freedom to operate and be heard... The ZEC further violates all regional initiatives on Elections management all of which Zimbabwe is a signatory including; the SADC Parliamentary Forum's Norms and Standards for Elections in Southern Africa, the Electoral Commissions Forum (ECF) and the Electoral Institute of Southern Africa's (EISA) Principles for Election Management, Monitoring and Observation in Southern Africa.

Zimbabwe Election Observation Mission
African Press Organisation | Database of press releases related to Africa | 22 March 2008 The Pan African Parliament (PAP) would like to announce that it had received an invitation from the Government of Zimbabwe to participate as an observer for its forthcoming Harmonized Elections set to take place on March 29, 2008 for which it would like to express its appreciation. This is the second time that PAP is called upon to observe elections in a Member State, the first being Kenya... A team of twenty (20) Parliamentarians representing all the five regions of Africa will be going on this mission, supported by a number of staff from the Secretariat of PAP and the Electoral Institute of Southern Africa (EISA), who is collaborating with PAP on this mission.

Malawi trebles election budget to prevent voters' roll chaos
AFP/Google 03 Mar 2008
Malawi has trebled its budget for general elections in 2009, to avoid a repeat of a fiasco in 2004 elections in which voters' roll figures were inflated, electoral officials said Monday. The southern African country will spend 50 million US dollars (33 million euros) on the May poll, its fourth multi-party general elections since the end of dictatorial rule 15 years ago... An Electoral Institute of Southern Africa (EISA) observer mission to Malawi in 2004 found the voter registration process to be "deficient, resulting in inflated voter registration figures." Deficiencies in a subsequent voters roll, such as omission of names and photographs, meant people had to be identified by three different reference documents which caused "confusion, delays and possible disenfranchisement of voters."

Zimbabwe Justice Ministry Vetting Applications By Election Observers
Jonga Kandemiiri, VOA 3 March 2008
The Zimbabwe Election Support Network said Monday that it is submitting applications for election observers to the Ministry of Justice, which has taken the responsibility for clearing applications by domestic observers before they can be processed by the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission, nominally the authority in this domain... The South African-based Electoral Institution of Southern Africa has sought permission to send observers, but a spokesman for the group said it awaits a response from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. That ministry is also considering an application from the Parliamentary Forum of the Southern African Development Community, whose application to send observers to 2005 general elections was turned down.

February

Interview with Catherine Musuva on the Kenyan crisis and the state of African democracy
01 Feb 2008
Lives continue to be lost in the post election violence in Kenya. The loss of these lives will be in vain unless Africa can learn something from what is happening in that country. The Botswana Guardian interviewed Catherine Musuva of EISA.

January

African analysts closely following Kenya crisis
17 Jan 2008
The Electoral Institute of Southern Africa sent observers to the vote. Executive-Director Denis Kadima says besides the death and destruction, a major casualty of the elections has been loss of confidence in the process on the part of Kenya's people.

Zimbabwe Electoral Commission under Fire over Pre-Election redistricting
VOA news - 7 Jan 2008, Belinda Musanhu
Elsewhere, the Electoral Institute of Southern Africa said the electoral commission has no mandate to determine that the elections must be held in March, as talks between the ruling party and opposition have yet to be concluded in Pretoria.

ECK could go to court soon
6 Jan 2008
Sources at ECK headquarters informed the Sunday Nation that an observer mission from South Africa-The Election Institute of South Africa-had offered their proposal on the way out of the rigmarole that has become of the Kenyan election.