Elections in Zimbabwe have been marred by electoral violence, maladministration of elections, electoral rigging and lack of legitimate results that are accepted by all political parties.
The civil CSOs have been critical partners in ianfluencing better management of elections but their mandate has not been very clear in the constitution.
Lack of constitutional mandate made the role of the CSOs in elections not fully pronounced.
COS in Zimbabwe, especially in the Black community, is in a state of chronic underdevelopment as a result of historical factors related to pre- and post-independence politics.
These factors include the value premises of colonial institutions, African tradition and the liberation war, all of which have had decisive influences in shaping and constraining the development of civil society in Zimbabwe.
This takes precedence within Southern Africa were the casing example can be taken from Zimbabwe’s Non-Governmental Organisations Bill of 2004 which denies local NGO’s that are involved in issues of governance.
CSOs play a pivotal role in promoting free and fair elections globally.
In Ghana, eight CSOs rejected the Electoral Commission’s proposal to com-pile a new electoral roll ahead of the 2020 presidential and parliamentary elections.
In addition, in Kogi state, a coalition of over 400 civil rights organisations under the aegis of Transition Monitoring Group were in the process of writing to the International Criminal Court in The Hague, and other organs of the United Nation complained about the violence and killings which trailed the 2020 elections.
The violence killed prominent people that were deemed to be from opposition political parties.
In addition, in India, the CSOs through the Pre-Election Voter Awareness Campaign (PEVAC) had a positive impact on 2017 UP panchayat elections.
The CSOs increased the participation of women and other marginalised communities in a political process largely dominated by “paisa” and “pratishta” (money and feudal claims to status).
This was also the case in Nigeria in 2019 where CSOs interfaced directly or indirectly with relatively unwilling state and non-state actors in a bid to entrench democratic values in every facet of governance.
The 2019 elections the CSOs through their programme The Vote project of Yiaga Africa they managed disseminate credible and accurate election information and recommendations for electoral reforms to citizens and government.
Myanmar held their general elections in November 2020 and the CSOs played a critical role in expanding human rights and ensuring accountability.
The CSOs have been important actors in the political transition by mobilising citizens to vote for progressive candidates and ensuring the success of reform initiatives.
The right of political participation should be exercised through free and fair elections.
As a matter of fact, Human Rights in the context of elections can be thought of in the following senses, the right to participate in free and fair elections is intrinsically linked to a number of basic rights, the enjoyment of which is crucial to a meaningful electoral process.
These prerequisite rights according UN are: the right to freedom from discrimination; right to freedom of expression; right to freedom of opinion; right to freedom of peaceful assembly; right to freedom of association; right to freedom of movement; freedom from fear and intimidation.
During the 2018 elections, the CSOs disseminated information about the Biometric Voter Registration (BVR) exercise across the country, contributing to high voter registration.
The CSOs developed coherent plans for effective voter education campaigns and established social media working groups to encourage cross-organizational networking as well as greater utilization of social media. The social media managed to develop many twitter handles, WhatsApp groups and Facebook pages with huge following. Most organisations reported that they managed to influence the youth voters to register to vote using social media.
Additionally, other CSOs such as ZESN verified the electoral results through the Sample-Based Observation (SBO) and their results were closer to Zimbabwe Electoral Commission (hereinafter ZEC) results.
About 2000 CSOs’ election observers produced election reports that were sent to their respective organisations.
These reports were the ones used to produce final electoral observation reports that were widely shared.
The CSOs are also active in the release of electoral results. Additionally, here were several CSOs observation reports that were released that highlighted areas that needed to be improved on in order to have free, fair and credible elections in Zimbabwe.
ZESN released their electoral results for sample-based observation whose results were closer to ZEC’s. Some international organisations and donor groups also released their electoral reports.
The reports captured events that happened after voting such as the violence that happened after the declaration of election results.
After the 2018 elections, over 150 human rights violations were documented between 1-7 August 2018, including retributive acts against supporters, agents and candidates of the opposition.
Providing electoral process debriefs is also another key role played by the SCOs such as ZLHR in the Zimbabwean electoral process.
The CSOs directors indicated that the engagements came up with options that they should consider for the next electoral process which includes better coordination and management of electoral process.
They indicated that the coordination might improve information flow and serves on costs.
On the other hand, ZEC conducted a review of the electoral process with CSOs with the view of improving how the institution manages elections. Some of the suggestions that came from the debriefs are being used during the bye elections.
However, the powers of the CSOs are sometimes reduced by the electoral bodies as is the case in Zimbabwe where the CSOs are only observers not monitors.
This undesirable scenario can be pinned on challenges such as; Restricted Civic Democratic Space, Intimidation and Detention, Limited Powers, Repressive Legislation, Tense Relations with the Government, and Lack of Adequate Funding.
In order to strengthen the role of the civil society in promoting human rights during election, there is need for the Zimbabwean Government to; review all legislation to ensure full compliance with regional and international obligations, particularly those on freedom of expression, association and assembly, including but not limited to the Cybercrime and Cybersecurity Bill and some sections of the Criminal Law (Codification and Reform) Act; engage and consult with civil society more frequently in policy formulation and implementation; commit to ratifying the Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment, as well as its Optional Protocol; Respect their positive obligations under existing regional and human rights standards to protect the legal profession; Respect and protect fundamental freedoms, especially in relation to political participation.
On the side of CSOs, to enhance their role during elections, there is need to continue using advocacy, public interest litigation and legal education as ways of reminding the state of its obligations to respect and protect human rights in the run-up to, during and after elections; Work with labour unions, medical experts and social media influencers; that is, entities that do no traditionally work on human rights issues, as they are useful allies with whom the legal profession could collaborate to protect human rights when democracy and civic rights are threatened; Consider being part of regional and international networks, which may be of assistance or provide support when they are threatened in the course of carrying out their professional duties.
Thandeka N Ncube and Clara Kamwara are final year students at Africa University studying International Relations. They can be contacted on 0778020806/ 0776508407.
