Zimbabwe Election Watch : Issue 20
Mugabe amends electoral laws
With Zimbabwe’s crucial 29 March elections just over a week away, President Mugabe has once again backtracked on changes agreed to at the South African-brokered talks between the government opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC).
Under the agreed electoral laws, to avoid intimidation of voters, police were not allowed within 100 metres of a polling station. However, according to state radio, the newly amended electoral laws allow policemen into polling stations so they can “assist” illiterate people to vote.
Members of the politicised Zimbabwe Republic Police (ZRP) have been brutal in their attempts to suppress all forms of opposition in the country, and according to data collected by organisations such as the Zimbabwe Human Rights NGO Forum, they are major perpetrators of human rights abuses. The police have been named as torturers, and police premises as places of torture in hundreds of cases recorded by the Forum.
Police Commissioner General Augustine Chihuri said police officers will not hesitate to use “full force” to stop politically motivated violence
A warming by Police Commissioner General Augustine Chihuri at the end of February that the police will not hesitate to use force prior to the elections is beliefed to be a clear indication that the government plans to rig the polls.
Insufficient polling stations in cities
The MDC has filed an urgent court application to compel the country’s electoral body to increase the number of polling stations. The MDC took the move after the Zimbabwe Election Support Network (ZESN), an independent election monitoring group, warned that thousands of voters in Zimbabwe’s cities - strongholds of the opposition - may not have time to cast ballots because too few polling stations have been provided.
The ZESN said it feared a repeat of the 2002 presidential elections when tens of thousands of voters were turned away across the country after polls had closed.
A list of polling stations released by the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission (ZEC), whose members are appointed by President Mugabe, showed “a significant discrepancy” that favoured the ruling party in its rural strongholds, ZESN said.
According to ZESN, Harare has 379 polling centres for about 760 000 registered voters, leaving an average number of 2 022 voting at each station over 12 hours. If there is maximum turnout, that gives each citizen an average of 22 seconds to vote. In one city district, it came down to nine seconds if all 4 600 registered voters showed up.
In contrast, most rural polling stations would handle only about 600 voters each, the network said.
Faced with the potential of mass-scale rigging, the opposition says it is vital that most regional and foreign observers be deployed to all rural areas, traditionally the flash points of political violence and intimidation. In the past, observers have rarely set foot in the Zanu PF strongholds of the three Mashonaland provinces.
Resorting to High Court action for voters’ roll
MDC leader Morgan Tsvangirai has had to resort to Harare’s High Court to obtain an electronic version of the voters’ roll. Widely described as “shambolic”, the roll is said to be stuffed with voters who are long-dead, duplicated names and non-existent people or those with fake identities.
Last week, the Electoral Court turned down an opposition application to have the court order the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission to disclose the number of ballot papers printed for the joint presidential, parliamentary, senate and local government elections.
Voters’ roll discrepancies
SW Radio Africa has published a brief analysis of scanned voters’ rolls which reveal major discrepancies between what the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission has declared as the number of voters per constituency, and those actually on the voters’ roll. In Goromonzi South, for example, the discrepancy is -30.8 percent, while in the Harare suburb of Glen Norah it is +19.9 percent.
Observers selected on basis of reciprocity
Zimbabwe’s Foreign Affairs Minister Simbarashe Mumbengegwi said that election observers had been selected on the basis of “reciprocity, objectivity and impartiality” with regards to their relationship with Zimbabwe.
“Clearly, those who believe the only free and fair election is (one) where the opposition wins have been excluded, since the ruling party, Zanu PF, is poised to score another triumph,” he said.
The government has invited 47 regional and sub-regional organisations as well as countries from Africa, the Americas and Asia - notably China and Malaysia - to view the elections. The only European country on the list is Russia.
As the first contingent of Southern African Development Community (SADC) election observers started arriving, the opposition reported a resurgence of incidents of violence, especially in perceived Zanu PF strongholds.
Presidential challenger Dr Simba Makoni has repeatedly described the rural areas as places where people are consumed with fear (due to years of relentless government perpetrated intimidation).
Jan Raath, Times (UK) describes the rural areas as places where “the ruling party card is the key to receiving famine relief when (one is) starving, while dissent has meant death for hundreds.”
Mugabe in panic mode
Mugabe is reported by the Zimbabwe Independent to be “in panic mode due to the turmoil in Zanu PF, and in the face of a surging tide of support for his main rivals”.
He has stepped up his strategy of vote buying - handing out millions of US dollars worth of agricultural equipment, as well as awarding pay rises to the armed forces and teachers. Mugabe continues to hijack the state media and is widely believed to have geared up the electoral machinery in order to manipulate the vote in his favour.
Violence against opposition parties has intensified
SW Radio Africa reports that violence against opposition members has also intensified, despite the arrival of a regional observer team in Harare on Wednesday. At least five MDC (MT) supporters were attacked recently by a gang of Zanu PF youths and had to be hospitalised. One of the victims is in intensive care.
A parliamentary candidate from the United People’s Party was also assaulted by Zanu PF youth militants and is receiving medical care.
Presidential candidate Simba Makoni and his campaign team have been harassed and threatened by war veterans.
Stakes are high for SADC observer mission
Business Day reports that “stakes are high for the SADC observer team” which is expected to ensure that the credibility of SADC is not compromised.
However, Zim Online reports that the SADC executive secretary, Dr Tomaz Salomao, a former planning minister in Mozambique, has expressed confidence that the elections will be peaceful.
“As we come and observe the elections in Zimbabwe, we do so with confidence that the tradition of peace encapsulated in the unquestionable political mutuality and tolerance shall again guide Zimbabweans as they go to the polls,” he said.
“Peaceful, beautiful and fantastic”
This week Zimbabwe’s ambassador to South Africa, Simon Khaya Moyo, described campaigning in the country as “peaceful, beautiful and fantastic.”
Earlier this month however, Moyo was scathing about a series of protests staged outside the Zimbabwean embassy in Pretoria by the Revolutionary Youth Movement of Zimbabwe (RYMZ) and other pro-democracy groups. RYMZ president Simon Mudekwa said they were protesting about the ongoing human rights abuses, electoral irregularities and the uneven playing field which favours Zanu PF.
Mudekwa said his group wanted the Zimbabwean people to be liberated from oppression, just as South Africans had been.
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