Recent Publications

Understanding the Pre-Election Climate in Zimbabwe

This report provides links of 10 policy dialogues that audit the pre election environment in Zimbabwe. The dialogues were hosted by RAU in collaboration with SAPES Trust, to help our stakeholders assess the dialogues easily we provided links to the policy briefs and YouTube videos in the report.

Best Practices in Elections: Can Zimbabwe meet these in 2023?

This monograph gives a review of elections in Zimbabwe since 2000, and highlights the electoral processes towards the 2023 elections in Zimbabwe based on a frame of five Pillars originally posed in the first Dialogue in August 2022. This report is based on nine previous Election Policy Dialogues hosted by RAU and SAPES trust to audit the pre-election environment. It examines all aspects of the pre-election climate of the 2023 elections, and comes to a conclusion that the electoral processes prior to the 2023 elections show a bias towards the ruling party.

Elections in 2023: Has Zimbabwe passed the audit on the pre-election process?

This Policy Briefing makes an analysis of the nine previous Election Policy Dialogues organised around the five Pillars originally posed in the first Dialogue in August 2022. The dialogues sought to determine whether the electoral processes prior to the 2023 elections meet the standards of best practice. The conclusions from these dialogues were unanimously negative, pointing out that many recommendations by international observers from 2018 had been ignored.

Elections 2023 Webinar Series: Policy Brief No. 4 2023 Is There Freedom of Information and Association Ahead of the Elections in 2023?

This policy briefing assesses whether there is freedom of Information and Association Ahead of the Elections in 2023. These freedoms are pivotal during elections as they ensure citizens make well-informed decisions. It concludes that the current conditions do not suggest that the conditions around Information as a crucial Pillar in elections – both freedom of information and freedom of association – are present currently

What will be different in the 2023 elections?

This opinion piece argues that democracy has established itself as the dominant political system, and as an integral part of this process, multi-party elections have emerged as the most legitimate route to political office. Yet, in recent years violence has increased in such elections. It also depicts how electoral violence affects the participation of youth and women in governance given they constitute majority of the Zimbabwean population.

Elections 2023 Webinar Series: Policy Brief No. 3 2023 What is the Role of International Observers in the Forthcoming Elections in Zimbabwe?

The big question that has been raised in this and previous Policy Dialogues on elections is whether there is any value in observing elections when it is evident that all the signs are that the process is deeply flawed prior to the polling. This policy dialogue explores how Zimbabwe has fared with international observers since the 2000 elections and how the 2023 elections could provide prospect for a democratic transition.

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