International standards adhered to during Zimbabwe’s elections: Palestine

The Palestinian Elections Observation team is of the view that the 2023 harmonised elections were generally held in accordance with international standards.

The Palestinian Observation team comprised high-level officials including Mr. Hisham Kuhail, the Chief Electoral Officer of the Central Elections Commission of Palestine (CEC), Mr. Jameel Alkhaldi, the Director of the regional office of CEC in Gaza, Ms. Tamara Tibi, legal researcher at the Ministry of Women Affairs, Mr. Safwan Halabi, the Director General of Elections at the Ministry of Local Governance, and Mr. Iyad Mohammad, the Director of East and Central Africa and African Union at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

The Observation team, headed by Mr. Kuhail arrived on August 20th and was joined by His Excellency Mr. Tamer Almassri, the Palestinian Ambassador in Zimbabwe, and his deputy Mr. Salim Siam.

The Palestinian Observation team focused on looking at the procedural aspects of the electoral process, the readiness of the Elections Commission of Zimbabwe, the competence of the polling staff, and the general voting environment of Elections Day.

On Wednesday, the team covered 6 voting centres namely; Avondale Primary School, Strat Haven Tents, Belvedere Teachers College, Chisipite Girls School, and Nenyere Tents in Mbare. During the day, the team attended the opening of the polling centre of Avondale Primary School, as well as the closing at the teachers’ college.

The team arrived at Avondale Primary School at 06:50 and the following was observed:

• Long voter queues were evident and clearly demonstrated the keen interest of voters to exercise their rights to choose their representatives.
• Gender presence was evident, as well as voters of different age groups. – Ease of Access to and within the Polling centre.
• No Campaigning activities were observed near, around and within the polling centre.
• Clear Presence of local observers and party agents.
• The polling centre has four polling stations all of which were ready to receive voters at 07:20. However voting did not take place due to the delay in the delivery of Ballot papers to the local Authorities. This continued to be the case till the team left the polling centre at 08:14.

“Despite the delay, opening procedures were transparent and were carried out according to international standards. Polling staff proved to be competent and were able to explain all procedures to local observers and party agents in a clear and easy way. By the same token, national observers and parties agents seem to understand their rights and duties and they were satisfied with the process so far. It is worth mentioning here the gender mix of local observers and party agents,” Mr. Hisham Kuhail said.

He added that the voting process followed international standards. Voters were checked against the voters list, and then given three ballot papers (Presidential, National Assembly, and Local Authority). The voter’s finger is then marked by indelible ink and casts his/her vote in a secure voting screen, and finally casts the votes in their designated ballot boxes. The voting time for a single voter took between 2:30 to 4:20 minutes.

“However, it should be noted that polling station serves four voters at a time. No indication whatsoever of voter intimidation or vote buying was noticed. The team concluded the election day by attending the closing process at Belvedere Teachers College. The team arrived at 18:45 and the following were observed:

• There was no crowdness at the entrance or in the centre, with the presence of few voters.
• Polling Centre was closed at 19:30 and no voters were allowed to enter the polling centre.
• Ballot Boxes were closed in the presence of local observers and party agents according to international standards.
• Polling staff explained in a clear manner all aspects of the closing procedures, including seal checks, and ballot papers reconciliation.
• Each ballot box was then opened to make sure that it contained only ballots of the relevant elections.
• Non-corresponding ballots were moved to their respective box.
• Counting then took place in an acceptable manner.

“In conclusion, the opening, the closing and counting processes were carried out in a transparent and efficient manner and according to internationally acceptable Standards,” HE Almassri said.