Responsibilities of states

The Southern African Development Community (SADC) adopted the SADC Principles and Guidelines Governing Democratic Elections at the SADC Summit in Mauritius in August 2004. The SADC Principles and Guidelines set out the following responsibilities of member states holding elections:

• Establish appropriate institutions where issues such as codes of conduct, citizenship, residency, age requirements for eligible voters and compilation of voters’ registers are addressed;
• Establish impartial, all-inclusive, competent and accountable national electoral bodies staffed by qualified personnel, as well as competent legal entities including effective constitutional courts to arbitrate in the event of disputes arising from the conduct of elections;
• Safeguard the human and civil liberties of all citizens including the freedom of movement, assembly, association, expression, and campaigning as well as access to the media on the part of all stakeholders, during electoral processes;
• Take all necessary measures and precautions to prevent the perpetration of fraud, rigging or any other illegal practices throughout the whole electoral process, in order to maintain peace and security;
• Ensure the availability of adequate logistics and resources for carrying out democratic elections;
• Ensure that adequate security is provided to all parties participating in elections;
• Ensure the transparency and integrity of the entire electoral process by facilitating the deployment of representatives of political parties and individual candidates at polling and counting stations and by accrediting national and/other observers/monitors;
• Encourage the participation of women, disabled and youth in all aspects of the electoral process in accordance with the national laws.