Brenna Matendere
The Zimbabwe Electoral Support Network has urged authorities to retain the harmonized polls model amid speculation that government is considering deharmonising future plebiscites starting from 2028.
Under the plot, local government elections would be held in 2028 and presidential and parliamentary elections in 2030.
However, in its latest report, ZESN says simultaneous elections have increased the competitiveness and Zimbabwe must retain such.
A harmonised election is an election in which voters cast ballots for different political offices, namely the president, Members of Parliament (MPs), and local councillors, at the same time.
“Zimbabwe must retain the system of holding harmonised local, parliamentary and presidential elections which it adopted on the 30 of October 2007 and entrenched in the 2013 Constitution of Zimbabwe Amendment (No. 20) Act.
“Globally, these are commonly referred to as simultaneous or synchronized elections. The most familiar proposal from proponents of de-harmonisation is that local authority elections must be held separately from presidential and parliamentary elections,” reads the report.
The theoretical logic is that this will allow voters to give adequate attention to local issues without distraction from national races.
However, ZESN says in contrast, empirical data shows that simultaneous elections have increased the competitiveness and profile of local elections in Zimbabwe which were dominated by the ruling party before harmonisation as is currently the case with local-only elections in Tanzania and Mozambique.
“In addition, proponents of de-harmonisation argue that holding elections at the same time can distort results as people are likely to vote along party slates, overwhelm voters and provide administrative and logistical challenges for electoral bodies.
However, Indonesia with a registered voter population of 200 million compared to Zimbabwe’s 6.6 million had the world’s largest single day elections where citizens voted across all five levels of political office on 14 February 2024.
Even in India, the world’s largest democracy with an electorate of about 970 million registered voters a High Level Committee appointed by government recently recommended for simultaneous elections,” reads the report.
ZESN adds that the proposition that people are likely to vote along party slates in synchronised elections can be resolved through massive voter and political education by the electoral management body, civil society organisations and other stakeholders.
A considered view therefore is that synchronising local, presidential and parliamentary elections will result in high voter participation as evident in synchronised local elections such as in the Comoros (71% in 2015); Botswana (84.1%); Zambia (above 70% in 2021); Sweden (84.21% in 2022) and Indonesia (83.29% in 2024). In contrast, voter turn-out has been low in de-harmonised local elections like Namibia (38.22% in 2020), South Africa, United States (usually less than 20% when held in off cycles), Lesotho (29% in 2023) and South Africa
(45.86% in 2021).
“Simultaneous elections increase competitiveness and profile of local elections contrary to conventional wisdom. Prior to the synchronisation of elections local government elections in Zimbabwe were dominated by the ruling party which could win more than 50% of the wards uncontested as demonstrated in the 2002 and 2006 rural district council elections.
In countries with local only elections like Tanzania and Mozambique the ruling parties won with 99% in 2019 and nearly 100% in 2023 respectively. Harmonised elections also result in huge financial savings to the public exchequer and one financial plan for all spheres of government. In addition, synchronisation can lead to the regular holding of local government elections.
“It is easier for semi-authoritarian states to not hold local elections when they are unsynchronised than when they are synchronised as evident in Angola and Seychelles which hold no local elections as well as the cancellation or postponement of local-only urban government elections in Zimbabwe from the late 1990s to the early 2000s,” reads the report.
Holding elections at the same time reduces cycles of violence and human rights violations in the country. Data on trends of violence shows that non-election periods in Zimbabwe are comparatively peaceful to election periods.
Synchronised elections will also reduce cycles of uncertainty for corporate investments. An election is an uncertainty inducing event and global data shows that during election years, firms reduce investment expenditures by an average of 4.8% relative to non-election years.
Avoiding multiple election cycles also provides increased time for government, business and society to spend on development work, production and governance and aids democratic progression in Zimbabwe’s post-colonial electoral transition.
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