SADC Principles and Guidelines Governing Democratic Elections:
Is the Zimbabwe case in need of a special roadmap?
A lot of media hype has been created around the election roadmap for Zimbabwe that has again been the centre of intense negotiations amongst negotiators from Zanu PF and the two MDC formations. The Youth Forum will in the coming weeks be hosting discussions and consultations among youth on whether Zimbabwe is really in need of a special election roadmap. This is against the background that SADC approved in 2004 principles and guidelines governing democratic elections. Other SADC countries notably South Africa and Botswana have developed sound electoral systems based on these principles and guidelines.
The Youth Forum contends that if properly and fully followed, these guidelines can lead to the holding of a free and fair election in Zimbabwe. Section 7 of the SADC guidelines clearly lays out specific requirements to guarantee credible elections by member states. The Youth Forum will therefore seek to give young people a chance to scrutinize both the roadmap and the guidelines and detailed analyses of both will be made to determine whether SADC is not going round in circles in facilitating negotiations over the current proposed Zimbabwe election roadmap.
Follow the links below and have your say:
1. Zimbabwe Election Roadmap draft: http://www.newsday.co.zw/article/2011-04-28-draft-roadmap-to-zimbabwes-elections
2. SADC Principles and Guidelines Governing Democratic Elections: www.sokwanele.com/files/.../Elections/SADC/sadcprotocolelections.pdf
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Youth Forum Information and Publicity Department
youthforumpublicity@gmail.com
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