Local elections lobby group, the Zimbabwe Election Support Network (ZESN) has today endorsed the European Union Election Observer Mission report which dismissed the July 30 harmonised elections for failing to meet the international standards.
Briefing the media during the launch of the election report in the capital today, ZESN Director, Rindai Chipfunde- Vava said the EU election report is a balanced report.
“I think it’s a balanced report. In terms of the observations they noted also some improvements and also the observations which we noted are almost similar.
“So I think going forward it’s up to now to the Zimbabweans, the government of Zimbabwe that we take the recommendations to improve our future electoral processes,” she said.
ZSEN’s executive summary report agrees with EU poll report that state media in its pre-election coverage failed to adopt the middle of the road approach and also noted the abuse of traditional leaders who were romped as the ruling party commissars in rural areas thereby making the ground uneven for a free, fair and credible election.
“There was bias in favour of the incumbent while opposition and smaller parties, as well as women, got far less coverage.
“Over six weeks of the election period, Zanu PF got 52 percent coverage while the MDC Alliance got 19 percent. Whereas Emmerson Mnangagwa got 57 percent coverage, Nelson Chamisa got 15 percent.
“Zanu PF got 76 percent coverage in state run newspapers and 48 percent on the Zimbabwe Broadcasting Corporation (ZBC) while the MDC Alliance got 17 percent and six percent respectively,” reads part of the report.
The election watchdog also highlighted that there was abuse of state resource, a position the extensively noted in the EU report.
“It was tainted by incidents of intimidation, mostly by alleged Zanu PF supporters; abuse of state resources in campaigns by Zanu PF; the partisan role of traditional leaders in favour of Zanu PF, politicization of food aid,” reads the ZESN report.
Meanwhile, Zanu PF last week described the EU poll report as nonsense and stage managed to perpetuate the anti-Zimbabwe policies of the west.
