Zimbabwe: 2008 Post-election - from the count to the results
Updated 16 May 2008
Introduction
The Zimbabwean Presidential, House of Assembly, Senatorial and Local Council elections ("harmonised elections") were held on 29 March 2008. The EISA observer mission (2008) noted on 31 March that these took place under conditions where, "unlike in previous elections, freedom of assembly, freedom of association, freedom of movement and freedom of speech could be generally exercised without undue hindrance". However, the mission also found "the electoral process to be severely wanting in respect of fairness as most of the critical aspects of the process lacked transparency. At the time of compiling this interim statement, the tabulation of results was still unfolding and the announcement of results was painstakingly slow".
This lack of transparency and the slowness with which results were released were crucial to the events that unfolded after the election.
The count
According to Zimbabwean law, after the close of the poll the counting of the ballots should take place at polling stations where the voting took place by presiding officer of the polling station. This should be done in the presence of the polling officers, accredited international and national observers, the candidates and their election agents. The results return should be shown to all present and candidates or their agents are permitted to sign the return if they wish. Thereafter a copy of the return should be displayed outside the polling station (Electoral Act, 61-64). This is, in fact, the process that was observed in the March 2008 elections (EISA 2008).
Official verification, tabulation and announcement of the results
By law the results obtained at a polling station should be forwarded to the relevant House of Assembly constituency elections officer (Electoral Act 64):
- The House of Assembly constituency elections officer is responsible, in the presence of the candidates, their chief election agents, monitors and observers that are present, for verifying the returns of polling stations, summating the results from the polling stations and postal votes and announcing the results for the particular House of Assembly constituency concerned (Electoral Act 65-66).
- Polling station returns for a Senatorial constituency are forwarded by the House of Assembly constituency elections officer to a designated senatorial constituency elections officer who goes through the same process for the Senate constituency concerned and announces the result for that Senate constituency (Electoral Act 65(6)).
- The law is not explicit on the handling of returns from polling stations for a presidential election or their verification and tabulation, stating only that the result of an election to the office of President shall be declared by the Chief Elections Officer (Electoral Act 110(6)).
The process for the verification and tabulation of the presidential results, in particular, was opaque. Moreover, the National Command Centre that was responsible for the verification and tabulation of the results was closed on 6 April, before the results were announced (ZESN 2008a).
The results
The first official results for six National Assembly constituencies were announced nationally at 07:00 on 31 March 2008 and results continued to trickle in until 3 April 2008 when the last results were made known nationally (Mail & Guardian 2008a, ZESN 2008b; see 2008 House of Assembly election results for the final seat distribution). Thereafter the Senatorial results began to emerge (see 2008 Senate election results for the final seat distribution). However, by the time of writing, the presidential results were still not known.
The slow pace of the verification, tabulation and announcement of results, coupled with the opaqueness of the process, fuelled rumours of vote-rigging and military intervention and political tensions in Zimbabwe rose. Four days after the close of polls news reporter Scott Baldauf (2008) observed "Raised expectations by the MDC, which declared a landslide victory late Saturday night, and dire warnings by the ZANU-PF machinery of harsh consequences for any civil unrest, have sent warning bells of potential conflict" (see also Post-election - rising tensions and legal manouevres and Post-election violence).
The results of the presidential election were announced by the chief electoral officer on 2 May 2008 (Veritas 2008; see 2008 Presidential election results - first round). The Movement for Democratic Change - Tsvangirai (MDC-T) objected to the results claiming that, according to their projections (see Post-election - parallel vote tabulations) their candidate, Morgan Tsvangirai, had won outright (AFP 2008).
The Zimbabwe Election Support Network (ZESN 2008c) expressed concern at the lack of transparency in the process by which the presidential results were compiled, saying:
Taking cognisance of the fact that the ZEC [Zimbabwe Electoral Commission] National Command Centre was closed on the 6th of April and only to be open on the 1st of May for tabulation of Presidential results, ZESN cannot substantiate ZEC figures as the network is not aware of the chain of custody of the ballot materials during the aforementioned period... ZESN is also aware that there was no transparency in the verification, collation and tabulation of Presidential results, as party agents who are required by the law to be present were not invited to witness the process... In addition ZEC failed to avail information on the final number and distribution of polling stations, distribution of postal votes, distribution of registered voters at close of inspection on 14 February 2008, which again makes it difficult for the network to ascertain and analyse the overall distribution of results.
The presidential run-off
References
AFP 2008 "Zimbabwe opposition chief wins election, no overall majority", [www] http://afp.google.com/article/ALeqM5hWVFppVzOfX3ie8Z_2az-xAnQ9hg [opens new window] (accessed 5 Mar 2010).
EISA 2008 Interim Statement, 31 March.
ELECTORAL ACT (CHAPTER 2:13), incorporates all amendments until 17 March 2008, [www] http://aceproject.org/ero-en/regions/africa/ZW/zimbawe-electoral-act-2008 [PDF document, opens new window] (accessed 5 Mar 2010).
MAIL & GUARDIAN 2008a "Zimbabweans await election outcome", 31 March, [www] http://www.mg.co.za/article/2008-03-31-zimbabweans-await-election-outcome [opens new window] (accessed 5 Mar 2010).
VERITAS 2008, "Bill Watch 18/2008", 3 May, [www] http://www.kubatana.net/html/archive/legisl/080502veritas.asp?sector=LEGISL [opens new window] (accessed 5 Mar 2010).
ZESN 2008a "Serious concerns over closure of ZEC National Command Centre", 9 April, [www] http://www.zesn.org.zw/publications/publication_177.doc [MS Word document] (accessed 5 Mar 2010).
ZESN 2008b "ZEC Announces Final House of Assembly Results", circular e-mail 3 April 2008.
ZESN 2008c "ZESN Cannot Validate ZEC Results", circular e-mail 6 May 2008.