daniel chigunwe
Dr Gwinyayi Albert Dzinesa
Herald Correspondent
The post-election violence that erupted in Mozambique after the October 9, 2024 general elections spotlighted the Southern African Development Community (SADC) Electoral Advisory Council (SEAC) Strategy for the Prevention of Electoral Related Conflicts.
The SADC Heads of State convened an Extraordinary Summit convened on November 20, 2024, reaffirmed its commitment to collaborating with Mozambique “in ensuring peace, security and stability through the relevant structures of the SADC Organ on Politics, Defence and Security Cooperation.” The organ was established under the SADC Treaty of 1992 to promote political stability, peace and security in the region.
SADC Electoral Advisory Council
The SADC Protocol on Politics, Defence and Security Cooperation outlines the organ’s operational frameworks. SEAC is one of SADC’s collective conflict management institutions, alongside the Mediation, Conflict Prevention and Preventive Diplomacy Structure (MCPPD), comprising the Panel of Elders that the Organ mandated to engage Mozambican electoral stakeholders, the Mediation Reference Group, and the Mediation Support Unit.
Furthermore, SEAC is tasked with collaborating with the SADC Regional Early Warning Centre, enabling proactive alerts and guidance for the Organ on potential electoral conflicts. These initiatives demonstrate SADC’s efforts to connect its Organ mechanisms focused on ensuring regional stability through effective early warning, conflict prevention, and conflict mediation systems.
SADC inaugurated SEAC in 2011 to enhance the integrity of democratic processes and contribute to the prevention of electoral related conflicts in the region. SEAC plays a vital advisory role for the SADC Organ, focusing on electoral processes, conflict prevention, mitigation, resolution, and promoting democracy and good governance.
The structures, rules, and procedures of SEAC are specifically designed to ensure member states’ compliance with the revised SADC principles and guidelines for democratic elections.
By adopting an electoral cycle approach, SADC’s revised guidelines clarify SEAC’s critical function as a proactive player in ensuring the peaceful conduct of elections and democratic processes throughout the pre-election, electoral, and post-election phases.
A key aspect of these guidelines is the establishment of impartial, inclusive, and competent national election management bodies (EMBs) by member states. Additionally, the benchmarks emphasise the importance of women’s participation in electoral processes to achieve gender balance, aligning with SADC’s gender and development protocol.
SEAC is tasked with facilitating the work of SADC Election Observation Missions (SEOMs) to ensure that elections conform to the established principles and guidelines, making them increasingly free, fair, and transparent. The SEOMs provide validation through their reports, which not only confirm the integrity of electoral processes but also offer recommendations aimed at enhancing these practices.
When the principles and guidelines are followed to the letter, they serve as an important tool for mitigating electoral conflicts. By adhering to these benchmarks, member states can significantly boost the transparency and credibility of their elections, fostering acceptance of electoral outcomes by all political parties, and the lawful challenging of results. This commitment to democratic integrity ultimately strengthens trust in governance throughout the region.
SEAC has developed the Strategy for the Prevention of Electoral Related Conflict to enhance its capacity to proactively advise the organ on the prevention and resolution of conflicts related to electoral processes.
This strategy is meant to assist, support and complement SADC MCPPD’s efforts to address both the immediate and underlying causes of electoral conflict and violence in specific member states contexts.
The strategy encompasses the entire electoral cycle, including pre-election, electoral, and post-election phases in line with SADC election principles and guidelines.
Its conflict prevention toolkit includes assessments during these phases, Goodwill Missions, and facilitating dialogues among electoral stakeholders.
This dialogue generates an electoral code of conduct and reviews the electoral process after elections.
SEAC’s post-election conflict prevention analyses rely on information collected from the SEOMs, as well as other international and domestic observer missions, dialogue processes, and the REWC.
SEAC is expected to collaborate with all electoral stakeholders and encourage EMBs to develop national capacity building programmes.
These programmes will nurture and support identified mediation, conflict prevention, and peacebuilding initiatives, as well as peace infrastructures in preparation for future election cycles.
SEAC’s strategy also emphasises providing technical advice to enhance the capabilities of the EMBs and to support national efforts in dispute resolution, conflict management, and prevention.
This strategy is rooted in the abovementioned SADC Treaty and the Protocol on Politics, Defence, and Security Cooperation, which establish SEAC. These legal instruments commit member states to promote common democratic values and institutions, including adherence to SADC’s election benchmarks.
Dr Gwinyayi A Dzinesa is a senior faculty member of Africa University and a Senior Research Fellow at the Institute for Pan African Thought and Conversation (IPATC), University of Johannesburg. He writes in his own capacity.
