Author: Kåre Vollan (Head of Mission)

Date: Oslo, 13 March 2002.

Title: Preliminary statement on presidential elections by the Norwegian Observer Mission

Original language: English.

Concerning: The Norwegian Observer Mission was composed of 25 election observers monitoring the 9-11 March Zimbabwean presidential elections. The mission was invited by the government and had observers in all Zimbabwean provinces. This is the preliminary statement, published two days after the elections finished.

Source: Norwegian Observer Mission

Preliminary statement on presidential elections by the Norwegian Observer Mission 

The Norwegian Government was invited by the President of the Republic of Zimbabwe to send observers to the Presidential Elections 2002. Norwegian observers have been deployed in the country since 12 February, with most observers arriving on 25 February. The Norwegian Observer Mission wishes to thank the Electoral Supervisory Commission, authorities, the public and all involved parties for the co-operation shown during our assignment.

The Observer Mission regrets that the conditions for a much broader observation of the elections were not in place. The Observer Mission concludes that the Presidential Elections failed to meet key, broadly accepted, criteria for elections.

The Presidential Elections in Zimbabwe in March 2002 were conducted in an environment of strong polarisation, political violence and an election administration with severe shortcomings. Despite that, voters on election days turned out to vote in large numbers, showing an extraordinary sense of civic duty.

The run-up to the election was marred by a pattern of intimidation and violence. Even though incidents have been reported from both sides, the evidence shows clearly that in the vast majority of cases the ruling party has been to blame. Numerous reports of harassment and assault of opposition officials, members and supporters and their homes have been documented by observers. Opposition offices have also been attacked in several places.

The Public Order and Security Act has been used to obstruct regular political activities involving the opposition. Meetings have been interrupted, party representatives have been taken in for questioning during deployment to their polling stations, party offices have been raided, and opposition officials and supporters have been detained on spurious charges.

On election days, the capacity of polling stations in Harare was wholly inadequate. Despite advance warnings, the Registrar General decided to carry out elections with as many as 5,300 voters per polling station on average in Harare and Chitungwiza. In all other provinces, excepting Bulawayo, the number was around 1,000 per polling station.

On the first election day voters in Harare and Chitungwiza turned out in extremely high numbers. In the morning of the first day of polls up to 4,000 voters had queued up to vote. 

After three days of voting only 2,000 to 3,500 voters per polling station had been able to cast their votes. Despite a clear requirement in the Electoral Act to allow all voters in line at the close of the polls to vote, the Registrar General decided to close all polling stations at around 10 pm on day two and at 7 pm on the extended third day of voting. The thousands of voters still in line both days were sent away by the police. Many of the voters who were turned away had been waiting for ten to twenty hours in vain. Inexplicably, the polling did not start until 11 am on the third day, despite polling material and staff being present from the morning onwards at all polling stations visited by our teams. The irregular closure of the polling stations on the second and third days together with the late opening the third day removed the last chance to offer all voters a fair chance to cast their vote within reasonable time.

In the areas outside of Harare the voting was carried out in an efficient manner. However, a number of incidents of intimidation were reported, including harassment of polling agents and domestic observers, resulting in fear surrounding the electoral process. Inside the polling stations visited by our observers, the technical part of the process was handled in an orderly manner, and staff at the polling stations showed a high degree of commitment to achieve a correct voting process.

The election administration in Zimbabwe, both the bodies administering the elections and those supervising them, form part of the executive structure, lacking convincing independence and integrity. The contesting parties' only involvement is via their polling and election agents. Polling agents for the opposition were in a number of instances harassed or intimidated by supporters of the ruling party or the police. Being the vital instrument for keeping the checks and balances in place in the polling stations, this represents a weakening of the trust in the voting process. Despite the reported incidents, the main opposition party seemed to have been able to achieve a fairly good coverage of polling agents in the polling stations around the country.

Accreditation of domestic observers in substantial numbers could have enhanced the transparency and confidence in the voting process. However, the Minister of Justice chose to exclude most of the 12,500 observers organised by the Zimbabwe Elections Support Network from observing the elections, thereby missing the opportunity to prove its commitment to a fully transparent process.

The voter registration process had serious flaws in that the cut-off dates for making amendments to the registers were changed without prior public announcements. The extension of the registration from 27 January to 3 March was only known to the public on 3 March.

Other vital information about the voting, such as the number and location of polling stations, the number of registered voters per constituency, the number of approved postal voters, and the number of voters on supplementary voters rolls of late registrants were published very late, or not at all. 

The voters rolls have not been available for purchase by the public as required by law.

This is a preliminary statement issued before the count is finished. A final report will be submitted later.

The Norwegian Observer Mission consisted of 25 observers, all deployed two to four weeks prior to the election. Teams of two have covered every province in the country assessing the pre-election period, the electoral framework as well as election days. For further questions please contact Head of Mission Kåre Vollan. 

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