ABSTRACT
Sustaining peace and democracy through elections continues to prove costly for Africa as elections in several parts of the continent have been charactirised by vote rigging, violence and intimidation among other malpractices. Such undemocratic conduct undermines peace and stability as well as the quest for regional integration which proponents of due democratic processes aim to project. Consequently, this chapter examines SADC’s quest for regional cooperation in the context of divisions and varying interpretations of electoral conflicts and the impact of these on open borders. The highly militarised and contested 2008 election run-off in Zimbabwe is therefore revisited here as a case study. It presents a more nuanced dimension that, unlike traditional threats to peace and security, election related conflicts have the potential to rupture regional peace and security and retard the quest for regional integration. Following a qualitative methodology involving extensive documentary review and inductive reasoning, the chapter highlights and discusses observable impacts of the Zimbabwean electoral crisis of 2008 on open borders specifically and SADC’s broader regional integration project in general. The chapter concludes by arguing that, in the context of the 2017 military coup in Zimbabwe resulting in the ousting of President Robert Mugabe, there is an element of state capture by the military, which also has implications for regional peace and security.
