The Southern African Development Community (SADC) Electoral Advisory Council (EAC) is on a week-long mission in Zimbabwe to assess the country’s political and security situation ahead of general elections slated for later this year.
The team, which arrived in the country Tuesday, has been meeting various stakeholders that include ambassadors from different member states, representatives of the United Nations and the African Union, Zimbabwe’s security services, the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission (ZEC), civil society, political parties, faith-based organizations, and the local media.
After the visit, the team will compile a report for the chairperson of the SADC Organ on Politics, Defense and Security Cooperation, President Hage Geingob of Namibia, to guide the regional body’s election observer mission, state news agency New Ziana reported Thursday.
The mission seeks to assess whether the political and security conditions in the country are conducive to the holding of free, fair, transparent, credible and peaceful elections in conformity with the revised SADC principles and guidelines. It also seeks to assess the legal framework governing the 2023 polls and the preparedness of the ZEC to conduct the general elections.
