23 Oct 2024

The Southern African Development Community (SADC) has officially launched its Electoral Observation Mission (SEOM) in Botswana, aiming to ensure a fair electoral process in the upcoming general elections. Speaking at the launch event, Head of the Mission, Mr Mizengo Pinda, a former Prime Minister of Tanzania, expressed the mission’s optimism and readiness to contribute positively to the electoral landscape.

Mr Pinda outlined SEOM’s extensive responsibilities, which included a series of election awareness initiatives designed to educate stakeholders about the mission’s operations.

“The SEOM will be deployed to all districts in Botswana to observe both the pre-election and polling day activities, with the objective of assessing the conduct of the elections in accordance with the revised SADC Principles and Guidelines Governing Democratic Elections of 2021,” he stated.

The principles, he said emphasised the importance of citizen participation in the democratic and development processes, the implementation of measures to prevent political violence, intimidation and intolerance, and the promotion of equal opportunities for all political parties to access the State Media and for all citizens to access information.”

He said SEOM promoted electoral integrity, electoral justice, good governance, peace and stability in the SADC region and to give effect to the commitment contained in the SADC Principles and Guidelines.

Furthermore, he said the Mission emphasised the importance of acknowledging and respecting the election outcomes by all political entities.

“SADC calls upon all to act maturely, respect competing political views and exercise responsibility in the post-election phase whether or not one’s favoured political party or candidate emerges as the people’s choice,” he said.

Mr Pinda also said that the mission would also pay particular attention to the country’s constitution and electoral laws adding that it was necessary to explain that based on these national legal instruments, the mission would assess the conduct of the elections against a set of central principles stipulated in the revised SADC principles and guidelines governing democratic elections.

Additionally, Mr Pinda highlighted that the SADC electoral advisory council undertook a pre-election goodwill assessment mission to Botswana in April 2024, with the aim to assess whether the political and security environments in the country were conducive for holding elections in conformity with SADC principles and guidelines.

The composition of SEOM includes the SADC Troika, Secretariat support staff and 72 observer delegates who come from 10 SADC member states.ENDS