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Sokwanele - Enough is Enough -
Zimbabwe PROMOTING NON-VIOLENT PRINCIPLES TO ACHIEVE DEMOCRACY |
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Sokwanele : 1 April 2008 Sokwanele enjoys the privilege of being a non-partisan organization committed to achieving democracy through non-violent means. Over the years we have established a broad spectrum of relationships with political parties, civil society and NGOs. Following the harmonised elections we have continuously monitored the situation on the ground through our diverse networks. We have come to our own conclusion as to the final seat count of the House of Assembly results, extracted from both MDC formations and Independent candidates, cross referenced with ZESN findings and the independent Zimbabwe Election Result website (www.zimelectionresults.com).
(Please note that 3 bi-elections will have to be held following the unfortunate deaths of certain candidates, hence a total of 207 seats in the House of Assembly). These results clearly show that the opposition coalition now enjoys a majority control of the House of Assembly. However, please be aware that should Mugabe steal the Presidential vote, according to the constitution he would have the power to dissolve the House of Assembly. Parallel Voter Tabulation (PVT) results have been compared to the “official” Zimbabwe Electoral Commission (ZEC) figures. The “official” results are emanating from the government controlled body at a snail pace and indicate massive discrepancies in certain constituencies, a clear sign Zanu PF is desperately attempting to inflate results in their favour. This is being done to reduce Morgan Tsvangirai’s presidential vote to below the 50% plus 1 result required for him to win the race in round one. Zanu PF are slowly building overall numbers in the House of Assembly to facilitate inflated Presidential votes for Mugabe. It must be pointed out that should it come to a presidential run off, the combined forces of Morgan Tsvangirai and Simba Makoni would ensure success for the opposition. However, one cannot be certain that Mugabe’s forces have sufficient resources to go to a run off and they may well attempt to rig completely in Mugabe and ZanuPF’s favour in this first round. At this stage the most blatant discrepancy can be clearly seen in ex-Vice President, Joice Majuru’s Mt Darwin West constituency. She recorded 6071 votes in the PVT results to win back her seat, as compared to the ZEC declared results of 13270. This constitutes inflation of over 100%. In Mashonaland Central, Shamva North constituency, Nicholas Goche polled 4195 votes in the PVT results, but the ZEC declared his win as 10385, more than double the PVT figure. The delay in the announcement of the official results by ZEC is being strategically planned in order to give the Central Intelligence Organisation the much needed time to manipulate the results. This is blatant rigging at its most iniquitous. The people of Zimbabwe have spoken and it is now time for Zanu PF, SADC, all other African bodies and the rest of the world to respect and support the will of the people. Visit our website at
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Zimbabwe Today
Latest
leaked figures in the contest for the top job mean a presidential
run-off
Harare, Zimbabwe, Monday, March 31, 4.30 pm
Two
different sources of information have agreed this afternoon that the
contest
for the next President of Zimbabwe, known already to be a
two-horse-race
between Tsvangirai and Mugabe, is so close that unless the
figures are
changed by Zanu-PF's vote riggers, there will be a run-off vote.
Both the
independent organisation Crisis In Zimbabwe Coalition and my source
within
the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission (ZEC) agree with the following
figures:
Tsvangirai 48 per cent
Mugabe 44 per
cent
Under the constitution, this means there will have to be a two-man
run-off
vote.
While observers here try to decide what this will mean
in the coming days,
one successful parliamentary candidate has allowed his
celebration of
victory to get slightly out of hand.
Eliot Manyika,
who is the Zanu-PF National Commissar and a Minister Without
Portolio, won
in Mashonaland East. He and his supporters decided that this
was an occasion
for singing and dancing, and the song they chose was a
composition by
Manyika himself, who claims to be a musician.
The Minister noticed a
young lad wearing a t-short supporting Tsvangirai,
and stopped the
celebration to tell the boy to go away. A quarrel developed,
there was some
pushing and shoving, and then the boy ran for it. Manyika,
unable to run as
fast as the boy, drew a pistol and shot him in the right
leg. Then he was
driven away by his supporters.
There is no news of the boy's condition.
Police are believed to have
interviewed the Minister, but not arrested
him.
I called Manyika this afternoon and asked him to comment on the
incident. He
said: "Leave me alone. Do you want me to shoot you
instead?"
I have decided to steer clear of the Minister for a few
days.
Posted on Monday, 31 March 2008 at 15:53
The Zimbabwean
Monday, 31 March 2008 15:26
Global Zimbabwe received the following information: Forum-USA
has
CIO informant says meetings are taking place to determine the exact
figures
that must be announced. This is no longer a question of how many
votes were
tallied.
ZANUPF will be given over 100 seats
MDC
(Tsvangirai) will be allocated 93 seats Rest will be shared among Makoni
and
Mutambara
CIO is now waiting for people to go sleep s they can announce
the results
Tomorrow's Herald (Tuesday) is going to publish that Mugabe
has won the
elections.
The army has now been deployed around the
country at full alert and with
orders to deal ruthlessly with any
protests.
Waiting for ZEC results is now fruitless exercise.
Way
forward?? - Nicholas Nickson Mada
Huffington Post
Michealene
Cristini Risley
Posted March 31, 2008 | 06:54 PM
(EST)
The
calm before the storm is a frighteningly familiar feeling for me. As a
Midwest gal born and raised, I know that feeling down to my bones. It is the
eerily quiet time period before a tornado touches down, before the chaos
hits, before destruction visits. Right before that touchdown, the air is
clear and crisp, there is an unnatural stillness. The squirrels have stopped
playing hide and seek amongst the branches and the birds have been silenced.
For those of us hiding in basements, our eyes glued to the television, we
are enveloped in anxiety waiting for information on where the tornado will
touch down.
Zimbabwe is in this place right now, thirteen million
people holding their
collective breathe, waiting for the results of the
presidential election.
The longer the wait, the more that anxiety spreads
like a pre-cursor to
blood-shed across the country. The only response to the
collective waiting
has been silence and more silence. I spoke to a friend in
Borrowdale earlier
today, she said "Everyone has been off the streets today.
All of us are
quiet and calm, but we know that must stay indoors and wait
for the
results."
There are people around the world holding their
breath with you,
Zimbabweans. You are not alone. There are many people
everywhere committed
to democracy that are fearful that you will not sit
quietly through another
rigged election. All of us are fearful of increased
violence in a country
that has been decimated by poor leadership.
On
Sunday, I heard reports that people were celebrating in the streets. In
fact, one journalist, Jan Raath wrote this for The Times, (UK) "We are on
the knife edge now. There is little doubt in the minds of a very large slice
of the population that Robert Mugabe was dealt a severe blow on Saturday.
They laughed in the voting queues about how they were going to skewer the
rooster (Mr. Mugabe) and roast him. They cast their votes and went home to
await the result. The slack Sunday morning was interrupted repeatedly by
cars hooting long and loud, with young men whistling and waving wide open
palms. One crowd was singing: "Saddam is gone, and now it is Bob's
turn."
But is it really Bob's turn? As Drew Barrymore voice rings in my
ears from
the movie ET I can hear her say, "What's happening?" And I wish I
knew. One
interesting aspect of this election is that Mugabe had agreed in
advance to
allow local districts to count and post results on site. To me
this seems to
make it harder to rig the elections district by district. On
www.Zimbabwemetro.com, one third
of the vote counted puts Mugabe in second
place, far behind Morgan
Tsvangirai. So what is taking so long to get to the
final results?
It
has been over 48 hours since the polling sites have closed. Most people
that
I spoke with in Zimbabwe could care less which candidate gets in, as
long as
it is not President Robert Mugabe. One of three things will happen.
The
first is that Mugabe will state that there is a TIE and an election run
off
needs to happen. The second scenario is that he will give up his post,
just
after collects all of "his" money and exits Zimbabwe with his core
alliance.
The third scenario, and the one that terrifies me the most,
is Mugabe
rigging the election and declaring his 6th term in office. No one
can afford
this scenario. Another sources in Zimbabwe said that tomorrow
Mugabe has a
planned meeting with the Army General and the head of the
Police force. It
scares me that this may happen, and would be devastating to
Zimbabwe. Then
again, I can't even begin to get inside the mind of Robert
Mugabe. So I like
the rest of the world, must wait.
The Times
April 1, 2008
Robert Lindsay
Investors in Mwana Africa, which owns a big
nickel mine in Zimbabwe, were
gambling yesterday on President Mugabe
suffering an electoral defeat,
sending the company’s shares soaring 8p to
41p. The company’s Bindura nickel
mine is productive, but it is valued at
zero in Mwana’s share price amid the
country’s economic chaos, runaway
inflation and government regulation that
prevent it making a profit on
nickel sales.
Central African Gold, which has a mine in Zimbabwe, closed
up 1¼p at 33½p.
Aquarius Platinum also has a mine in Zimbabwe, but it ended
the day down 4½p
at 745½p.
Hornby, the maker of model trains, came
off the rails somewhat, falling 16p
to 189½p as it said that demand in
Britain had slumped in the past few
weeks, while sales to Europe had been
hit by delays in receiving products
from the Far East. Dresdner Kleinwort
cut its target price from 300p to
214p.
Fortune Oil jumped 0.96p to
8.5p after it bought a gas distribution business
in Xinyang, China, and had
had its coal bed methane resource in China
independently valued at $184
million (£93 million).
Victoria Oil & Gas rose 9¾p to 29p after it
said that Russian authorities
were expected to allow it to register a
discovery at its Siberian gas
project at West Medvezhye, which should allow
it to move from exploration to
production. It also announced first
recoverable reserves.
Camec closed up 4¾p at 54p after Credit Suisse cut
its target price to 120p
but retained a “buy”, saying that the rising price
of cobalt should support
it.
Heritage Oil, a producer in Russia and
Oman and an explorer in Africa and
Iraq, rose to 298p from its 267p price
after switching its listing from the
Toronto stock exchange.
Eros
International, the Bollywood film group, rose 12½p to 307½p, as it
signed a
series of big television syndication deals
HARARE, April 1 (AFP)
Zimbabwe's opposition Movement for Democratic Change maintained a
slight
lead late Monday over President Robert Mugabe's ruling ZANU-PF as
results
trickled in from weekend general elections.
With 89 of the
210 parliamentary seats so far declared, the MDC had won 46
while the
Zimbabwe African National Union - Patriotic Front was trailing
slightly with
43, the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission announced to reporters.
The two
sides had been at level-pegging after each of the first four
announcements
released Monday but the MDC pulled ahead with the fifth set of
declarations
by the electoral commission.
One notable early result saw Mugabe's
outgoing justice minister Patrick
Chinamasa beaten in the rural eastern
constituency of Makoni Central.
A second cabinet member, Chen
Chimutengwende, also lost his seat in Mazowe
central, a rural constituency
near Harare.
Those who retained their seat included Vice President Joyce
Mujuru.
As well as choosing lawmakers, voters went to the polls on
Saturday to
choose a president and local councillors.
The relatively
slow pace of announcements has prompted the opposition to
accuse the
commission of deliberately sitting on the results in a bid to fix
the
election in favour of Mugabe, who has ruled since independence from
Britain
in 1980.
www.cathybuckle.com
Sunday 30th March 2008
Dear Family and Friends,
We finally
arrived at the March 29th elections in typical Zimbabwean
splendour. It was
a glorious day with a clear, bright blue sky, a warm sun
and everywhere an
overwhelmingly positive feeling. The mood was one of
anticipation and relief
that at last this momentous day had arrived and it
would surely mark the
turning point and define the future of Zimbabwe.
Voting started with long
queues at a few polling stations in my home area
but nothing even remotely
similar to the elections of 2002 and 2005 when we
had waited for ten or more
hours to vote. This time people waited for short
periods and by mid day the
queues had reduced considerably. The actual
voting process was efficient and
streamlined and many polling stations were
completely deserted by early
afternoon - hours before the close of the
election.
At 7am on the
30th March, 12 hours after polling stations had closed and
counting had been
underway, there was still no official information or any
election
results.
By 11 am, 16 hours into the counting process numerous phone
calls had come
in from excited, exhausted people telling of major opposition
wins but still
no official announcements were forthcoming. On the government
controlled ZBC
television there were no analysts, commentators or even news
stories of
Zimbabwe's most crucial election. Finally at midday a short
announcement was
made by the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission. They said
results were being
collated and verified and would be announced in "due
course."
As I write this letter the polls have been closed and counting
has been
underway for over 27 hours and still not a single official result
from even
one constituency has been announced. Tallying results publicly
displayed at
individual polling stations, the MDC have declared that they
have a strong
advantage. British Foreign Secretary Lord Malloch Brown has
said that it is
"quite likely that Mr Mugabe has lost the election" and Pan
African Election
Observers are expressing growing concern at the lack of
official results.
As each hour passes without any official results,
anxiety and suspicions are
growing. We are in uncharted water. Never before
has there been a complete
media blackout after an election. We can do
nothing but hope and pray that
somehow we will emerge from this with a true
and honest reflection of the
will of the people. Perhaps by the time you
read this letter the facts will
be known, I hope so.
Until next time,
love cathy.
The Zimbabwean
Monday, 31
March 2008 12:59
I WRITE this piece reluctantly. I am not sure I can
add anything that
would make a difference to the fraud that is about to be
committed by Robert
Mugabe and his thugs in Zimbabwe, writes Xolela Mangcu
in The Weekender,
Johannesburg.
Yes, I am presumptuous enough
to think what I and many of my
colleagues wrote made a difference to what
happened in Polokwane. At the
very least we raised our voices, and there was
still a political party
willing to stand up to its own leader.
But sometimes I just think Zimbabweans allowed Mugabe too long a
reign. The
arguments were the same as the ones advanced for a Mbeki third
term — uncle
Bob was Zimbabwe’s philosopher king. We even sent a delegation
that came
back praising one of their elections — despite the clear violence
that
Mugabe’s thugs used against his opponents. Already there are
allegations
that the ruling party has printed millions of extra ballot
papers. As an MDC
spokesperson put it, this election is not going to be lost
by beating up,
locking up and even killing opponents. It is going to be lost
through the
computer.
I thought the Zuma camp were just being difficult when
they insisted
on a manual count of the ballots at Polokwane. They knew
better than the
Zimbabweans how to stop dictators dead in their
tracks.
We must bear a great deal of responsibility: with the
support of our
government Zimbabwe became the most tragic example of how
racial nationalism
can literally bring a country to its knees, and its
monstrous leader can
take a bow to thunderous applause. Sheer madness, if
you ask me. But true
nonetheless. I have no wise words for Zimbabwe, just a
prayer.