Moments of Opportunity: 2008 Zimbabwe Elections

A good example of combining good use of technology with well-organized political activity by strong organizations to increase political space in an authoritarian or closed society was Zimbabwe’s 2008 election.

In that country the opposition Movement for Democratic Change was well organized and in position to make political gains based on the findings of a non-partisan election monitoring group, the Zimbabwe Election Support Network - ZESN. ZESN organized and trained thousands of courageous election observers dispatched across the nation on election day.

The moment of opportunity for a political breakthrough was created through the use of a well-established election monitoring methodology and a set of mobile communication and database technologies that enabled observers to quickly report polling station results to the capitol city, and ZESN to project an accurate election result based on a national statistical random sample of polling stations declaring Morgan Tsvangirai the winner.

This process disrupted the government’s attempt to falsify the results and steal the election as they had traditionally done. Instead, the ZANU-PF government took 5 weeks to acknowledge the result - which necessitated a run-off election that the MDC chose to boycott. Negotiations followed and because the MDC was well organized and had laid the groundwork to be in a position to negotiate a political agreement that gave Tsvangirai the Prime Minister position and the MDC several cabinet ministries in a government of national unity (GNU).

Because the Zimbabwean regime didn’t have the technological sophistication or political insight to impede the election monitoring efforts, it created a moment of opportunity for civic groups that they were able to take advantage of and make significant gains.

Of course, the regime will learn from their mistakes and different approaches may be needed to hold them accountable in future elections so the group will likely need to evolve its methods in the ongoing struggle.