It was initially established by the act of Parliament in 2004, with influence from its predecessor, the Electoral Supervisory Commission as well as the Southern African Development Community.
[4] Morgan Tsvangirai of the Movement for Democratic Change party believes that the June 2008 elections could not be conducted fairly due to election violence which Tsvangirai believes was state-sponsored, and in most cases performed by the state militia.
He also claims that members of the police, Zimbabwe National Army, and prison officers were being "forced" to vote Zanu-PF.
According to Tsvangirai the ZEC has failed to condemn whisperings among Zanu-PF officials that president Robert Mugabe will continue to rule regardless of electoral results, which has encouraged groups of War Veterans to provoke violence.
Critics state that this information is completely one-sided against the opposition and in favour of Robert Mugabe and the incumbent Zanu-PF party, as well as being incorrect, and inciting racial, religious and political hatred, and blame the commission for failing to monitor this.