After 33 years in power in
the southern African republic of Zimbabwe, Mugabe prepares to extend his
rule — by hook or by crook
By: Oakland Ross Feature Writer, Published on
Fri Jul 26 2013
He’s 89 years old, he may well be suffering from
prostate cancer, and what he probably most needs now is a good, long
rest.
But Robert Gabriel Mugabe is stalking the campaign trail once more,
with his fussy diction, his wobbly gait, and his Grecian Formula
hair. (Just think: he’s in his 90th year — and still not a hint of
grey.)
Not only that, Mugabe is also the odds-on favourite to prevail in
presidential and parliamentary elections set for July 31, thereby extending
his 33-year run as leader of the star-crossed southern African republic of
Zimbabwe — by hook or by crook.
Unfortunately, the vote is expected
to be so chaotic and possibly fraudulent that the official result will be
difficult to credit.
Not that it matters to the president.
Mugabe
and his venerable political vehicle, known as Zanu-PF, do not actually need
to win in order to claim victory.
The betting among the experts is that
the results will stand only if they favour Mugabe. If they don’t, he’ll
declare himself the winner, anyway.
That’s what happened in 2008, the
last time Zimbabweans trooped to the polls, braving a torrent of violence
loosed by the regime that left more than 200 people dead. It’s widely
believed that Morgan Tsvangirai, leader of the opposition Movement for
Democratic Change, triumphed in the first round of voting that year — to no
avail.
The count was halted, and Mugabe carried on in his self-appointed
role as Zimbabwe’s president for life.
It could happen
again.
“Will Zanu-PF surrender power?” asks John Campbell, an Africa
expert at the New-York-based Council on Foreign Affairs. “I would say,
‘Not on your life.’”
Some might ask how much it matters.
After
all, Zimbabwe nowadays is just a poor, landlocked kleptocracy perched in the
hinterland of southern Africa, a place not many outsiders visit anymore and
that no longer figures prominently in the news or the investment
calculations of foreign businesspeople.
It wasn’t always
so.
First as a white-ruled pariah territory called Rhodesia and later as
a charter member of the club of front-line African states that resisted
apartheid in South Africa, the country now known as Zimbabwe has long served
as a sort of crucible for many of this planet’s most troubling political and
racial challenges.
Mugabe enjoyed a degree of international stature
from 1980, when he first took power, until the mid-1990s.
Zimbabwe,
in the early days of Mugabe’s rule, was a mostly green and gorgeous land,
where poinsettia and bougainvillea blossomed even in the cool highland
winter and where blacks and whites seemed to get along peacefully, even in
the wake of an internal bush war that had raged between them during the
1970s.
In those post-liberation days, Zimbabwe seemed like the fulfilment
of Africa’s promise — a relatively prosperous place, blessed with radiant
days, decent rain, plenty of Virginia tobacco and other cash crops and ruled
by a man regarded by some as a visionary leader.
If Mugabe had quit
while he was ahead, he might now be regarded with something approaching the
reverence accorded South Africa’s Nelson Mandela.
But he didn’t and he
ain’t.
“Mugabe is kind of a caricature of an African dictator,” says Rita
Abrahamsen of the Graduate School of Public and International Affairs at the
University of Ottawa. “He has been pretty ruthless.”
Mugabe’s
penchant for brutal conduct should have been apparent from the early days of
his rule, when he dispatched the notorious Fifth Brigade of the Zimbabwean
army into the western lowlands of the country, to quell an uprising by
several hundred armed militants.
Known as the Gukurahundi, the operation
lasted several years and delivered wholesale terror to a region of Zimbabwe
inhabited mainly by Ndebele people, members of the smaller of Zimbabwe’s two
main ethnic groups.
Mugabe belongs to the dominant Shona
tribe.
Upwards of 20,000 people died in a campaign of violence that
lasted until 1984.
That was politics, Mugabe-style. His economic
record has been no subtler.
In the 1990s, the former schoolteacher began
expropriating white-owned farmland, often by force. That policy may well
have had a just foundation — a small compact of white-skinned commercial
farmers had long controlled the country’s best land, while a vastly larger
population of blacks had nothing — but the result was riddled with
corruption, cronyism, and gangland-style tactics.
The country
descended into what seemed to be a spiral of hyperinflation, political
repression and mortal fear, culminating in the presidential vote of 2008, a
vote Mugabe almost certainly lost, at least on paper.
Yet he continued to
rule, albeit with some concessions. Under mounting pressure from
neighbouring leaders, Mugabe entered into a coalition with the MDC that saw
Tsvangirai, now 61, take on the title of prime minister, while the
opposition also assumed responsibility for the country’s finances — with no
little success.
The country now uses the U.S. dollar as its official
currency, a measure that has helped stabilize the dizzying inflation of
recent years. Many Zimbabweans remain poor, but they are no longer
starving.
“The country is definitely better off,” says Abrahamsen. “The
opposition can claim much of the credit for the recovery. Paradoxically, it
doesn’t help them much.”
Caught unawares by Mugabe’s snap election
call late last month, the MDC is ill-prepared for the campaign now underway.
It’s entirely possible the octogenarian president will win the vote with
little need for intimidation tactics or electoral skulduggery.
“One
of the issues that is difficult for some people to accept is that Mugabe
remains extremely popular in Zimbabwe,” says Campbell.
Or he does in many
rural areas, where he is still regarded as a national hero, the champion of
black liberation who bested the country’s once dominant white-skinned elite,
now reduced to a disempowered rump of perhaps 30,000 souls.
Five
years after the country’s last presidential vote, Mugabe still holds all the
power that really matters, including the declared support of both the police
and the army. No one realistically expects this to change once Zimbabwe’s
long-suffering voters have cast their ballots yet again.
“I’m quite
gloomy,” says Campbell. “It seems to me the election will be a
farce.”
By all accounts, the electoral machinery is a mess, outdated
and probably gerrymandered to boot.
Sixty-three of Zimbabwe’s 210
parliamentary constituencies appear to contain more registered voters than
there are inhabitants, as measured by the most recent census. Most of these
ridings are in rural areas, where Mugabe’s support is keenest.
Huge
numbers of young voters — a disaffected generation widely opposed to Mugabe
— have been left off the registry. One electoral watchdog estimates that
roughly a million of the roughly 6 million registered voters are likely
deceased or no longer living in Zimbabwe.
There’s more.
An
advance poll conducted earlier this month for the benefit of police and
soldiers — who will be on duty on election day — disintegrated into a
shambles, with thousands denied their right to vote owing to shortages of
ballot papers. Tvsangirai, the MDC leader, says he is participating in
the campaign “with a heavy heart.”
That is not surprising. What is
more confounding is that he is participating at all. Perhaps he felt he had
no choice.
“It would have been difficult for him to boycott the
election,” says Abrahamsen. “He is the prime minister, after
all.”
The best that can be said of the contest so far is that there has
been little of the violence against opposition supporters that bloodied the
run-up to elections five years ago. But some worry that disturbances may
break out should Mugabe win in what seem to be suspicious
circumstances.
“It’s not known if that will lead to widespread violence,”
says Campbell.
One way or another, Mugabe seems destined to prolong his
presidency yet again, while cementing his status as the dean of Africa’s
post-colonial leaders. Love him or hate him, you can’t deny the tenacity or
the wiles that have kept him in power so long.
“He’s had the required
brutality, but he can read his country,” says Abrahamsen. “One has to admire
him even as one doesn’t approve of him.”
By Tererai Karimakwenda SW Radio
Africa 26 July 2013
Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai on
Friday expressed deep concern over last minute changes to vote counting
procedures and other potential electoral vote rigging by the Zimbabwe Electoral
Commission (ZEC).
Addressing the press in Harare, the
MDC-T president claimed ZEC had informed their electoral agents that ballots
from next week’s crucial election would be counted at ward level, and not at
polling stations as stipulated by law.
“Part of the political parties
negotiations of the Electoral law amendments included the provision that
counting of votes be done at the polling station and not at the ward level. This
was further fortified in the amendment law we agreed in Cabinet this year,”
Tsvangirai told reporters.
He explained that counting and
verifying votes at polling stations is an important “anti-rigging mechanism”
without which the election can be stolen. The changes by ZEC would mean that
ballots will have to be ferried from polling stations to wards in each
constituency. This is organized by the National Logistics Committee (NLC), which
handles all technical aspects of the election.
But according to Tsvangirai, there is
“severe lack of transparency by the committee which actually runs the election
machinery. We understand that this committee has been militarized. For example,
civil service drivers have been replaced by personnel from the
military.”
The PM also claimed that many ballots
cast in his favour during the special vote had been discovered in a bin. No
details were given as to how many such ballots had been
discovered.
Outlining other concerns, the MDC-T
director of elections, Dennis Murira, told SW Radio Africa that ZEC had also
decreased the number of polling stations in Harare, which is one of the largest
provinces in Zimbabwe.
According to research by the Zimbabwe
Election Support Network (ZESN), Harare has been allocated only 830 stations to
serve an estimate 1.2 million voters. The Midlands, whose estimated voter
population is just over 762,000, has 1,341polling stations.
Murira said: “Harare has religiously
voted for the MDC-T since 2002 and this move by ZEC is designed to slow down the
voting process. It’s simply an attempt to limit the number of ballots cast by
our supporters in one of the most important constituencies in the
country.”
The elections director also pointed to
the widespread use of traditional leaders by ZANU-PF to intimidate voters and
mobilize them to vote in favour of Robert Mugabe and his
party.
Meanwhile, the concerns of the MDC-T
were echoed by a coalition of civil society organizations from across the
Southern African region. Under the banner of the Zimbabwe Solidarity Forum
(ZSF), they have organized protest rallies in several SADC countries, calling
for free and fair elections in Zimbabwe.
In a statement on Friday, the ZSF
said: “This joint Regional Zimbabwe Solidarity action serves to galvanize
support from across the region to call on our governments to say that enough is
enough, a culture of un-manipulated free and fair electoral democracy is at the
heart of our collective struggles for freedom, for liberation and for
emancipation.”
As part of their demands, the ZSF
called on the Israeli company NIKUV to back off from helping ZANU-PF manipulate
ballots in next week’s election. The company has been accused of working with
the Central Intelligence Organisation to rig the elections on behalf of ZANU PF,
accusations which they have denied.
The ZSF said similar Zimbabwe
solidarity protests will be held in Namibia, Zambia, Malawi, Tanzania, Botswana,
Swaziland, Mozambique, and Lesotho. Details of the protests can be found
at:
Zimbabwe Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai on Friday warned that
next week's election was strongly at risk of being rigged, as he condemned
the African Union's upbeat assessment of the poll
preparations.
"There is clear evidence of manipulation," Tsvangirai told
a news conference in Harare. "There is a desperate attempt to subvert the
people's will."
The premier also criticised "the militarisation" of the
polls, saying military drivers were used to transport ballot papers during
an early voting exercise.
His comments came just five days before
Zimbabweans vote in the first presidential polls since violence tainted
elections in 2008.
Tsvangirai is vying the end the 33-year-rule of his
rival President Robert Mugabe.
The lead-up to the July 31 election
has been marred by flawed voter registration, chaotic early polling for
security forces, and lopsided campaign coverage on state media.
A
special advance vote held on June 15 and 16 for police officers and soldiers
saw polling stations open without ballot papers, leaving thousands unable to
cast their vote.
Tsvangirai claimed his party had also discovered that
some of the ballot papers that were cast then were later thrown in
dustbins.
The head of the African Union on Friday expressed confidence
that the early problems would be overcome.
"On the whole we got the
impression that the preparations were satisfactory," said AU commission
chairperson Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma.
"We think they will be able to
manage," she said. "They gave us an explanation of why things went wrong.
They called it a nightmare but it's a nightmare that's behind
them."
Tsvangirai called the claims "misleading".
"It's
unfortunate that statement was made because the truth of matter is that I
raised a number of issues with her of concern to the MDC," he said,
referring to his Movement for Democratic Change party.
"I raised the
issue around the chaotic voter registration which has led to thousands if
not a million people to be disenfranchised. I raised the issue of chaotic
special vote, the way it was conducted.
"I said these are concerns that
have implications on the credibility and legitimacy of the
election.
"For one to say that none of the principals have raised these
issues, it's not only unfortunate but it's downright misleading."
Movement for Democratic Change
leader Morgan Tsvangirai today said he was disturbed that with only five
days to go to the elections, Zimbabwe’s service chiefs had not issued a
statement to uphold the constitution and the will of the people. “That
public statement has not been made and we even have disturbing cases where
some officials in the security forces are standing for election as ZANU-PF
candidates,” Tsvangirai said.
He gave the example of Oliver Mandipaka, a
former police spokesman who is contesting in Buhera West.
The Buhera
West seat was previously held by Eric Matinenga who decided not to contest
because he could not stand the level of corruption he had witnessed since
2009 when he was appointed Minister of Constitutional and Parliamentary
affairs.
“One has to appreciate the importance of that public statement
as it would cleanse the environment of previous politically partisan
statements that have been made by heads of security services and damaged the
credibility of the elections,” the MDC leader said.
Tsvangirai was
addressing members of the elections due on 31 July.
He emphasised that
though there was less violence this year compared to the last elections in
2008, this did not mean that the elections would be free and fair.
He
cited other problems like inadequate preparations for the elections,
intimidation in rural areas, the failure to implement reforms, the bloated
voters’ roll and the decrease in the number of polling stations.
The Constitutional Court Friday ruled that
all security forces and election personnel, who failed to vote during the
special ballot on July 14th to 16th, can do so on Wednesday.
The
application was filed by the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission (ZEC) on Tuesday,
seeking to allow those who failed to vote during the Special Vote period, a
second chance to participate.
ZEC, citing ‘logistical challenges’,
revealed this week that of the 63,268 people who were authorised to vote
during the special voting exercise, only about 37,000 managed to
vote.
The exercise, which was marred by late delivery of ballot papers
and delays at polling stations, was meant to give all those who will be on
duty during the election next week the chance to cast their
vote.
MDC-T deputy director of elections Morgan Komichi welcomed the
ruling, and said his party believed that everyone had a right to vote if
they are eligible.
“We don’t think it was the fault of the security
forces that they failed to vote when their colleagues did, it was because of
the inefficiency at ZEC. It is therefore fair that they get another
chance.
“However, we note with concern that ZEC did not seek to extend
the same privilege to thousands of Zimbabweans who failed to register during
the chaotic registration campaign.
“This was despite the fact that we
petitioned ZEC to extend the programme so that all eligible Zimbabweans
could participate,” Komichi said.
He added that the MDC-T expects the
Commission to put in place measures to prevent double voting on July 31st
when the rest of the country goes to the polls.
“On our part as the
MDC-T we will be closely monitoring the election to ensure that there is no
double voting,” Komichi added.
However, constitutional lawyer and
Education Minister David Coltart said this week that while every citizen
should be allowed to vote, there is a provision in the Electoral Act that
stipulates that if a person has applied for a special vote they would not be
allowed to vote during the harmonised elections, to prevent double
voting.
Following ZEC’s application at the ConCourt, MDC-T’s
Secretary-General Tendai Biti wrote to ZEC pointing out that ZEC’s proposed
action would be against the law, according to parliamentary watchdog
BillWatch.
“Section 81B(2) of the Act states a voter who has been
authorised to cast a special vote shall not be entitled to vote in any other
manner than by casting a special vote in terms of this Part,” said the
watchdog.
Information and media project Kubatana.net says
its bulk messaging service has been blocked by the country’s
telecommunications regulatory body.
Kubatana, which uses various media
tools to enable Zimbabweans to access and share information, discovered that
they had been blocked Wednesday, when text messages kept bouncing
back.
Amanda Atwood, the project’s content manager, said when she
contacted their mobile service provider Econet, she was told the Posts and
Telecommunications Regulatory Authority of Zimbabwe (POTRAZ) had issued the
directive to block the messages.
Speaking to SW Radio Africa, Atwood
said: “On Wednesday when we noticed that our messages were not going through
we contacted our international carrier who told us that our upstream (local)
carrier Econet, was blocking us as a sender.
“We have been sending
out bulk text messages to thousands of our opt-in subscribers for several
years now without any problems.
“When I phoned Econet, someone in the
business development unit said they had received a directive from their
regulator POTRAZ to block all bulk messages coming from international
gateways. Econet said we were being blocked for political reasons,” said
Atwood.
However when she asked to see the directive, she was told that
the instruction had not been ‘communicated formally’.
Coming less
than a week before the country’s watershed election, many will see the
timing of the ban as an attempt by the ZANU PF controlled regulator to
censor the kind of information Zimbabweans receive during this crucial
period.
Kubatana said they will be approaching the Communications
Ministry over the ban, which they described as “unconstitutional,
obstructive, repressive and hostile.
“It is our opinion that as we
approach the July poll the Zimbabwean authorities are increasing their
control of the media, making the conditions for this election unfree and
unfair,” Kubatana further stated.
When SW Radio Africa contacted Econet,
this reporter was transferred back and forth six times to departments
including business development, the legal team, and public relations, but
still could not get a comment.
A POTRAZ switchboard operator transferred
us to three different officials before we were told to call back
later.
Media watchdog Media Institute of Southern Africa (MISA) issued a
statement Friday, expressing concern at what it described as an ‘arbitrary’
move by POTRAZ.
“MISA expresses concern about this alleged arbitrary
move by POTRAZ which it deems retrogressive in light of the provisions of
the new constitution which clearly states that every person has the right to
freedom of expression which includes ‘freedom to seek, receive and
communicate ideas and information’.
“MISA-Zimbabwe is further
concerned by the timing of this alleged ‘ban’ when the country is going
through this critical transition phase which in itself needs diverse avenues
for access to information and calls upon POTRAZ to reconsider the move,” the
statement stated.
On a number of occasions the government has tried to
block or jam any messages perceived as hostile towards ZANU PF. In 2009,
mobile phone network operators were directed to warn their subscribers not
to disseminate political messages. This followed the mass circulation of
text messages castigating ZANU-PF during the party’s congress in December
that year.
In 2010, following a Herald newspaper article threatening to
withdraw Econet’s licence, the company asked the MDC party to stop using its
network for political purposes. Econet then announced that it was installing
software to block political messages.
Also in 2010, the Broadcasting
Authority of Zimbabwe tried to block Kubatana Freedom Fone’s Interactive
Voice Response service, arguing that the service was a form of broadcasting,
and that Econet was facilitating unlicensed broadcasting.
Although
both Econet and Kubatana won the matter in court, that was not before Econet
had disconnected the service, pending investigations by its legal
department.
HARARE, July 26 (Reuters) - Zimbabwe's
government has blocked mass SMS bursts ahead of next week's election,
hobbling a powerful source of non-official information in the tightly
controlled southern African state, activists and a phone company source said
on Friday.
With the clock ticking to the July 31 poll in which President
Robert Mugabe is looking to add to his 33 years in power, web portal
Kubatana.net said it had noticed this week that its mass text messages were
mysteriously getting lost.
Its provider, Econet Wireless - Zimbabwe's
largest mobile phone firm with 8 million subscribers out of a population of
13 million - declined to comment.
However, a senior company source
confirmed the firm had bowed to government pressure to block mass SMS
services around the election "in the interest of peace, national security
and stability".
"We have just been told we cannot be facilitating bulk
SMSs during the elections, roughly for the next two or so weeks," the source
said. "Our understanding is that they will take our network down or cancel
our licence if there is any violation."
A spokeswoman for the
regulator, part of the telecoms ministry, declined to
comment.
Although Internet penetration rates have soared since the
end of a long economic meltdown in 2008, many Zimbabweans only have simple
phone handsets, making the plain old SMS a more effective way to disseminate
news and views to a mass audience.
Kubatana, whose messages contained
headlines, quotations, proverbs and political questions, said the shutdown
was an infringement of the freedom of expression enshrined in a constitution
only ratified in May.
"Kubatana.net views the interference in our work as
obstructive, repressive and hostile," it said in a statement.
ONLINE
FREEDOM
With Africa's oldest leader in no mood to ride off into the
political sunset, there are likely to be more disputes over control of
technology and the Internet, the breeding ground of people-power uprisings
against oppressive governments in the Middle East and North
Africa.
Faced with a daily diet of pro-Mugabe propaganda in newspapers
controlled by his ZANU-PF party and on state television and radio, many
Zimbabweans have turned to cyberspace for an alternative view.
Top of
the list is purported ZANU-PF "Deep Throat" Baba Jukwa, whose Facebook page
has attracted nearly 300,000 followers of his salacious tales of scandal and
intrigue at the heart of the ruling party.
Internet giant Google has lent
its weight, launching a 'Zimbabwe election hub' (www.google.co.zw/elections/ed/zw)
to bring all stories and issues under one web address.
Fearing a
rigged vote or result skewed by threats or violence - as happened in the
last election in 2008 - Zimbabweans have also set up sites to monitor the
progress of the election and conduct of security forces.
Prominent among
these is votewatch263.org, a 'crowd-sourcing' website that lets people
report incidents - positive or negative - that are then plotted on an
interactive map, a concept first used in Kenya after violent elections in
2007.
"News and information is circulating faster now than at any other
time. We don't need to listen to the ZBC bulletins or rely on a copy of the
Daily News to know what's going on," said votewatch263 spokeswoman Koliwe
Nyoni Majama.
Even though the atmosphere on the ground has been
relatively peaceful compared with 2008, online tensions are
high.
Hackers took out the website of the Zimbabwe Ministry of Defence
last month and the SMS blockade suggests Mugabe's cyber-police - believed to
be trained by China and Russia - will be keeping a close eye on sites such
as votewatch263.
The prospects of retaliation are especially high
since, as recipients of foreign donor funding, they are open to accusations
of being a front for hostile Western governments, a common Mugabe
refrain.
"The people who set up the software put some security settings
in place," Majama said. "We've tried our level best to get it on for as long
as possible - but everything is possible."
The inclusive government has secured US$96 million
out of the US$132.5 million for next week’s general election, Finance
Minister Tendai Biti said.
He said the remaining US$36 million would be
released by Saturday, which will be used to pay allowances for the 20,000
strong Zimbabwe Electoral Commission (ZEC)’s contingent.
Biti said he
was happy his ministry had done its constitutional duty to raise money for
the elections without hurting the economy.
He however blasted Justice
Minister Patrick Chinamasa for constantly interfering in his bid to secure
funds, saying that the senior ZANU PF figure had imposed himself as a de
facto Finance Minister.
The two clashed on whether the country should
borrow from sources outside Zimbabwe or ask donors to fund the election.
ZANU PF, through Chinamasa, flatly refused both propositions leaving Biti
with the huge task of raising the money on his own.
Both Biti and
Chinamasa have declined to disclose the source of the money, though analysts
believe it is cash from the diamonds revenue.
By Tererai Karimakwenda SW Radio
Africa 26 July, 2013
The state-owned Zimbabwe Broadcasting
Corporation (ZBC) is reported to have refused to air two campaign ads, with
electoral messages from Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai and his wife, less than
a week before crucial elections are held in the country.
According to the MDC-T, “sources” at
the ZBC said senior management “felt that the messages on the adverts were too
powerful” and would be difficult for ZANU-PF to match them. The ZBC was “now
waiting for ZANU PF to make counter adverts from Robert Mugabe and his wife
Grace” before screening both adverts.
The MDC-T said their adverts featured
Tsvangirai and his wife appealing to Zimbabweans to shun violence and ensure
that voting next week proceeded smoothly. They also laid out Tsvangirai’s
post-election plan.
A party official said the adverts had
already been paid for in full and ZBC was in violation of the Electoral Act,
which “guides political advertising during elections”.
The state broadcaster has not only
been airing Mugabe’s rallies live on ZTV, but they have also intensified their
campaign against Tsvangirai and his MDC-T party.
The ZBC has continued to serve as a
mouthpiece for ZANU PF and Robert Mugabe, ignoring electoral laws and media
reforms that were agreed to by all parties in the coalition
government.
These abuses have not gone unnoticed
by international media outlets, with many quoting the absence of media freedom
as one of the reforms that were promised but sabotaged by Mugabe and
ZANU-PF.
One of the banned
videos
The Economist, a globally respected
monthly, wrote: “The media are partial to ZANU PF and have worked hard in recent
years to smear its opponents. The state broadcaster is running ZANU PF attack
ads focusing on Mr Tsvangirai’s rather tangled love life, which depict him as a
foolish and heartless womanizer.”
Although many viewers abandoned ZBC
radio and TV broadcasts long ago, opting for alternatives available through
satellite decoders, many poor and rural communities still rely on the state
broadcaster for news.
Mugabe’s violent and oppressive
tactics may have helped him stay in power for 33 years so far, but in this
media-savvy era of Facebook and Twitter, information has become readily
available and Mugabe may be the last of a dying breed of dictators that kept the
masses in the dark.
The MDC-T adverts blocked from
broadcast can be viewed on the party’s website at www.mdc.co.zwand their
Facebook page – zimbabwemdc.
ZESN calls on ZEC to provide list of polling stations
ZESN CALLS ON ZEC TO
ANNOUNCE LIST OF POLLING STATIONS AHEAD OF ELECTIONS
HARARE, 25 July 2013
– With a few days left to the Harmonised Elections, the Zimbabwe Election
Support Network (ZESN) is appealing to the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission
(ZEC) to publish the final list of polling stations ahead of the polls to
enable party agents and observer groups to deploy. ZESN urges ZEC to release
the final list in advance in case there are additional polling stations or
any changes to the initial polling station list. This would ensure there is
sufficient time for the deployment of party agents and observers to the new
polling stations.
At a briefing for international, regional and local
observers on Wednesday, 24 July, ZEC announced that the final list of
polling stations would be published on the actual polling day. While ZESN
commends ZEC for being aware of the concerns raised after the March, 16
Referendum on the inadequacy of polling stations in highly populated areas,
ZESN is concerned that the initial list published did not address some of
the problems noted during the referendum. For example, Epworth, Ward 7
according to the 2012 Census has a population of 39,031 people. ZESN
estimates there are 22,638 eligible voters in the ward. However, for the
2013 Constitutional Referendum there was only one polling station in Epworth
Ward 7.
ZESN therefore appeals to ZEC to release the list of polling
stations in advance as part of international good practice and, in order to
enhance transparency and accountability of the whole electoral process. ZESN
is concerned that the last minute publishing of polling stations provides
limited time for interventions on the adequacy and accessibility of polling
stations. We note that the final list will be published in the print media.
However, ZESN is concerned that there is no guarantee every voter will have
access to the newspapers to access the final list of the polling
stations.
“We urge ZEC to release the final list in advance in the spirit
of promoting transparency, credibility and the smooth running of the
elections as this is also in line with good international practices”, said
ZESN Chairperson, Dr Solomon Zwana.
The Network encourages ZEC to
ensure that polling stations are adequate to avoid long queues that may
discourage potential voters from voting. ZEC should distribute the polling
stations based on demand and the potential number of voters in each
ward.
ZESN calls upon ZEC to seriously take all concerns raised to ensure
the credibility of the impending harmonised election and to ensure that
every voter has adequate information about where to cast their vote in good
time. ZESN urges ZEC to ensure that there are adequate polling stations to
ensure that all eligible are processed timeously. ZESN remains committed to
promoting a free and fair election in Zimbabwe.//Ends
With
less than a week before elections Zimbabwe's finance minister slashed the
country's growth forecast, citing the impact of political uncertainty
surrounding the vote.
Tendai Biti -- a member of the Movement for
Democratic Change -- said the first half of the year had been "a nightmare,"
as he revised 2013 growth down to 3.4 percent from an anticipated 5.0
percent.
"A decline in political situation is leading to a decline in
economic situation," he said.
"We are living from hand to mouth. The
fundamental challenge facing us is lack of production."
The drop is
expected to be most acutely felt in the mining sector.
Growth in the
sector was revised down from 17.1 percent to 5.3 percent.
Biti however
reported that most of the funding for the July 31 presidential and
legislative votes had been found.
The treasury has disbursed $96 million
for the vote and $36 million was yet to be disbursed.
"We are ready
for elections without help from anyone. We have done this without raping the
economy."
The government had sought more funding from the UN, but the
request was withdrawn amid a row over UN election monitors.
Zimbabwe
will hold elections on July 31 to choose a successor to the shaky
power-sharing government formed four years ago by President Robert Mugabe
and Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai.
But Biti questioned whether the
country could afford to fund a run-off election, if there is no clear winner
in the first round of voting.
"This will put unbelievable pressure on
this economy," he said.
Challenger for presidency questions integrity of Nkosazana
Dlamini-Zuma after she played down 'rumours' of
vote-rigging
David Smith in Harare guardian.co.uk,
Saturday 27 July 2013 02.10 AEST
Morgan Tsvangirai speaks at a press
conference in Harare. Photograph: Philimon Bulawayo/Reuters Morgan
Tsvangirai, the principal challenger to Robert Mugabe for the presidency of
Zimbabwe, has said a credible election next week is all but impossible and
lashed out at the head of the African Union for backing his
rival.
The prime minister said Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma was
perpetuating the narrative of Mugabe's Zanu-PF party and distorting his
complaints of vote-rigging in a way that "puts into question her integrity
as an impartial observer".
Tsvangirai, leader of the Movement for
Democratic Change (MDC), takes on Mugabe in a long-awaited election on
Wednesday amid fears of a repeat of the 2008 poll that led to economic
meltdown and violence in which more than 200 people died.
Western
monitors have been banned from the process again, so the role of the AU's
observation mission is crucial. At a press conference in Harare on Friday,
Dlamini-Zuma – ex-wife of the South African president, Jacob Zuma – welcomed
the peaceful atmosphere of the campaign so far and claimed that Tsvangirai
and other candidates had not raised irregularities with her.
"None of
them used the word 'rigging'," she said. "They might tell you what you want
to hear … We don't deal with rumours. We don't deal with
speculation."
An hour later across town, Tsvangirai gave a very
different version of events, claiming the MDC had uncovered evidence of
cheating in a special vote held early for thousands of security sector
employees.
Brandishing a document at the lectern, he said: "Yesterday we
found out that some ballots which were passed under the special vote found
themselves in dustbins. Why? Because this ballot supposedly is voted for
MDC. So it must find itself in the dustbin and not in the counting station …
So those who voted for Morgan Tsvangirai must find themselves in the
dustbin."
He complained that his party had not been given access to the
voter list, as required by law, and his supporters faced intimidation due to
the "militarisation" of the vote. He continued: "What we have seen on the
ground so far is clear evidence that the credibility of this election is at
serious risk. There is clear evidence of manipulation and a desperate
attempt to subvert the people's will. We have engaged observer missions and
given them our position on some of these issues."
Tsvangirai, who
joined Mugabe in a unity government after the 2008 election, was asked why
Dlamini-Zuma had told the world's media that he made no mention of
vote-rigging during their meeting. Bridling with indignation, he snapped
back: "You ask her. That's a Zanu-PF narrative: endorse an outcome which
then supports the Zanu-PF outcome."
In an apparent reference to
Dlamini-Zuma's close political ties with Thabo Mbeki, the former South
African president whose intervention in Zimbabwe angered the MDC in 2008, he
continued: "You know her background. She doesn't know.
"It is a very
unfortunate position to take, to accuse me of lying when I had a full
meeting in which she was there, a number of her own delegation were, a
number of my staffers were there and I pointed out these issues to her. Now,
the question is why would she want to distort a meeting in which everyone
participated. It puts into question her integrity as an impartial observer
to this process."
The AU has long been criticised as bureaucratic and
impotent in solving the continent's conflicts, for example in seeking a
peaceful solution to the 2011 uprising in Libya. As the leader of a
liberation movement against colonialism, Mugabe still commands wide respect
and support in many African countries. Enemies of Tsvangirai, meanwhile,
seek to portray the prime minister as a puppet of the west.
During a
tumultuous decade Tsvangirai has been beaten, arrested, almost thrown from a
10th-floor window and, according to many observers, had two election
victories snatched away from him. There are signs that on Wednesday it could
happen again.
"Is it the same story that has characterised Zimbabwean
elections or have we matured as a democracy?" Tsvangirai asked. "Obviously,
with what I have highlighted, it is a far cry from the ideal."
Asked
to describe his emotions at this critical moment, the 61-year-old replied:
"Am I frustrated? Actually I'm very bullish about the outcome of this
election. It will indicate to you how resilient the people of Zimbabwe are.
Indeed, it will surprise you in spite of the violence, the shenanigans that
are taking place."
He added: "Zanu-PF cannot win an election, never won
an election, but they have found ways of retaining power against the
people's wishes. That is not democracy. So actually I feel emboldened by the
fact that we have resisted this dictatorship for all these years using
democratic means and we have resisted their attempt to try to label us as a
violent party, as people who want to get power by whatever means.
"We
have stuck to our principle of having democratic change. The support of the
people, who have remained resilient over the last 14 years, gives us that
encouragement."
Police in the country must
take stronger measures to prevent and punish pre-election intimidation and
violence, Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai said on Friday.
The MDC-T
leader told journalists in Harare that they are concerned at the high level
of intimidation, especially in the rural areas, but in almost all the cases
police have not conducted any investigations and no one has been held
accountable.
‘Police are not taking action to deal with perpetrators of
violence and intimidation on the basis of instructions allegedly received
from their superiors. This is unlawful. We encourage police officers to
undertake their duties diligently,’ the Premier said.
He said in
other areas reports indicate that traditional leaders, on ZANU PF’s
instigation, are spreading falsified information designed to hoodwink and
intimidate voters. Tsvangirai however acknowledge that violence this year
was not on the same level as five years ago.
‘There is an absence of
overt violence but nevertheless, let us be clear and note that the absence
of violence is not by itself the sole or supreme indicator of a free and
fair electoral environment that will lead to a credible and legitimate
election outcome.
He credited his party for the political stability that
the country is presently enjoying, adding that it was one of the main
reasons they joined the inclusive government to ensure a progressive end to
the culture of violence and impunity.
‘In the past, when we have gone
to elections with ZANU PF in sole charge of the country, violence has been
the order of the day. Clearly, we in the MDC have made the crucial
difference and we want Zimbabweans to continue to enjoy that political
stability under our stewardship post-July 31,’ he added.
Tsvangirai
singled out Mashonaland East and West as the two provinces were ZANU PF’s
intimidation and violence machinery were still prevalent.
The MDC-T is being urged to solve
the problems causing a potential split in its Manicaland structures as soon
as it can, and present a united front at the elections next
week.
Party President Morgan Tsvangirai this week faced an angry backlash
after announcing that the party would support Mavambo.Kusile.Dawn (MKD)
leader, Simba Makoni, and his candidature in Makoni Central. This
effectively puts aside the MDC-T candidate, Patrick Sagandira, who was
elected in the party’s primary polls to represent the MDC-T in the national
election.
Tsvangirai and Makoni recently announced an election-coalition,
and part of their unity deal means Makoni will not contest in the
presidential race. But MDC-T supporters have been left angered by what they
say is the ‘imposition’ of Makoni over their chosen candidate,
Sagandira.
Media reports this week said that Tsvangirai has asked
Sagandira to step down, and it is understood that this caused supporters to
boycott a rally the Prime Minister addressed in Rusape on
Tuesday.
Some reports say that Tsvangirai was ‘heckled’ and that the
party’s provincial spokesperson, Pishai Muchauraya addressed another rally
in protest at the same time.
Muchauraya was not available to talk on
Friday, while national spokesperson Douglas Mwonzora said he was addressing
a campaign rally and was unavailable.
But observers and commentators
have said the fighting in Manicaland is badly timed, with just five days
before the MDC-T faces its main contender, ZANU PF, in the national
elections. Comments seen online all urged the party structures to put aside
their differences “for the greater good,” in order to beat ZANU PF at the
polls.
Zimbabwean journalist Mthulisi Mathuthu said Friday that the party
is putting itself at a disadvantage “that they really don’t
need.”
“They are already facing so many disadvantages in this election,
and they are supposed to be united. The MDC-T already has what they need,
they have support, but because they aren’t controlling the system, this
situation (in Manicaland) is another disadvantage they cannot have now,”
Mathuthu told SW Radio Africa.
Political analyst Clifford Mashiri
meanwhile said that the fighting in the MDC-T structures will unlikely
affect people’s voting choices. He said that infighting in ZANU PF is “much
worse.”
“Yes we need to acknowledge that there are some problems in
Manicaland, but they are definitely not as great as the problems in ZANU PF.
And those problems will cost Mugabe votes,” Mashiri said.
Chinhoyi,
July 26, 2013 - An upsurge of politically-motivated violent cases is being
reportedin some parts of the Mashonaland West province as
contestingcandidates accuse each other of pulling down each others'
campaigningposters.The most hit areas include Chinhoyi, Shackleton, Alaska,
Lion's Den,Banket and Mtorashanga.Chinhoyi parliamentary candidate Sibongile
Mgijima of MDC Ncubeformation accuses activists from the Tsvangirai
formation and Zanu PFof pulling down her posters. Peter Matarutse is
standing on the MDC-Tticket while flamboyant businessman Philip Chiyangwa
represents Zanu-PF in the constituency.Mgijima says what other parties are
doing is “barbaric anduncivilized” and that they fear competition especially
from women likeher.“Chiyangwa and Matarutse are cowards as their followers
are movingaround pulling down my posters" charged MgijimaThe situation does
not get better in Mtorashanga where Zanu PFcandidate Ignatius Chombo is
squaring off with two women MDC-T'sAbigail Sauti and his ex-wife Marian
Chombo, an independent candidate,in the fiercely contested seat.More than
four farm workers at Winray farm owned by Mtanda CAPSHoldings chairman were
evicted allegedly at the instruction of Chombothis week.Sauti said what
pained her most is that the evictions followed ameeting where all
contestants met with the police to discuss theelection and the need to
curtail violence.In Lion's Den the MDC-T’s aspiring council candidate
ChristopherMakoni claims to have been manhandled by the Zanu PF candidate
atMurereka police station after reporting to the police that his posterswere
being pulled down.Some Shackleton Mine residents accuse Zanu PF members for
threateninglandlords for accommodating MDC-T members. They allegedly
haveinstructed landlords to evict all perceived MDC-T supporters.Kizito
Shambare is one such unfortunate lodger.“I’m here in the open during this
winter because Zanu PF membersthreatened my landlady to evict me saying I’m
a sellout” said KizitoMashonaland West police spokesperson Inspector
Clemence Mabgweazaraconfirmed that the police are investigating cases of
political violence inChinhoyi and Lion's Den but refused to divulge
details.Mashonaland West provincial Joint Monitoring and
ImplementationCommittee(Jomic) said they are planning to hold meetings in
the affected areas withcandidates and their campaigning teams.The situation
apparently deteriorated when President Robert Mugabeaddressed a star rally
at Chinhoyi University of Technology groundslast week.(Source: Media
Monitoring Project Zimbabwe- MMPZ)
By Criswell Chisango Hurungwe, July
25, 2013 - Pro Zanu PF village headmen under Chief Kazangarare in
Mashonaland West province have declared a no go area to other political
parties in their area. Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) led by
Professor Welshman Ncube candidate Gladys Gwamada has failed to campaign
freely or even paste campaign posters in Chikanga area under Chief
Kazangarare situated about 50 kilometers north of Karoi town. Gwamada’s
chief election agent Jonathan Maphosa decried the partisan conduct of
headmen ahead of next week’s harmonised elections. "It is unfortunate that
it is hardly a few days before elections and these headmen have declared
Chikanga a no go area for the MDC. We should have been allowed to campaign
freely but Madamombe said he will not allow us there,” Maphosa told Radio
VOP. Madamombe is a war veteran who led a terror campaign together with
Jahweti Kazangarare during the bloody 2008 presidential run-off that saw
MDC-T leader Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai pulling out citing violence
after 200 of his supporters were killed countrywide. In Kazangarare, MDC-T
supporter Tapiwa Mubwandarikwa was murdered in April 2008 by suspected Zanu
PF supporters but no one has been brought to book yet. Gwamada will face
Zanu PF’s Reuben Marumahoko and MDC-T’s Robson Chitaunhike who are seeking
to represent their parties in Parliament. Madamombe, refused to respond to
the allegations when approached by Radio VOP while attending a hearing at
Karoi court on Thursday saying, “I do not speak to journalists that I do not
know”.
MASVINGO - President Robert Mugabe yesterday lamented factionalism
and infighting in his party and blamed it for the loss of support for the
party in Masvingo.
In an address to thousands of party supporters
outside Mucheke Stadium, the 89-year-old leader bemoaned his party’s waning
fortunes in Zimbabwe’s oldest city.
“We have been winning elections
since independence here and in 1985 we won all the seats in this province
and that’s when we declared one party State and from then you have always
been our stronghold,” Mugabe said.
“Asi muna 2008 maiwee takaruza maseats
zvisingaite, 14 akaenda tikasara ne 12. (But in 2008 we lost 14 seats and we
got only 12), what happened to us, is it infighting kurwisana
chaiko?”
Factionalism and infighting in Masvingo Province is intense as
Vice President Joyce Mujuru’s faction fronted by politburo member Dzikamai
Mavhaire is at loggerheads with the rival Emerson Mnangagwa faction, fronted
by Josiah Hungwe.
He pleaded to party supporters who were bused from
the province’s seven districts to vote for Zanu PF in the July 31
election.
“We still need to understand what happened in 2008 but we must
not forget what cost us our one party State,” he said.
“The British
also had a hand and lest we forget that they were oppressive and want to
effect regime change to us, but who are they to do so?
“I am appealing to
you that we need to vote for Zanu PF to get back our status of one party
state in the province and shame our enemies.”
Mugabe however, spent most
of his address in his history lectures where he drew people back to the 70s
liberation struggle.
BULAWAYO - Thanitha Khumalo, a member of the Joint monitoring
Implementation Committee (Jomic), has countermanded a directive by the
President’s Office to surrender all vehicles currently used by its members
saying these will not be submitted before elections.
About 78
vehicles were allocated to Jomic officers representing the three political
parties in the unity government in all the country’s 10 provinces.
But
the president’s office, through deputy chief secretary for modernisation and
administration Ray Ndhlukula, said the vehicles should have been surrendered
to government by July 22.
In a letter to the organ, Ndhlukula cited the
abuse of vehicles for political party activities especially ahead of
elections for recalling of the vehicles.
But according to media
reports, none of the three political parties has complied with the
directive.
Dismissing reports where she was said to have admitted that
the vehicles will be surrendered, Khumalo said the president’s office should
stay out of the matter.
“The vehicles will not be surrendered. They
were not bought by government but were donated to the Government of National
Unity as part of the Global Political Agreement signed by all three
political parties in government,” she said.
Jomic was formed in 2008
in order to ensure full implementation of the GPA.
Since its formation
Jomic had been able to engage a lot of stakeholders, including hosting the
first historic multiparty meetings in a bid to build mutual trust, tolerance
and understanding among Zimbabweans.
Khumalo, who is representing the
mainstream MDC in the Bulawayo East Constituency, said the vehicles are
still needed as they will be used for monitoring the July 31
elections.
“After the elections, that is when the donors not the
president’s office will decide what to do with the vehicles,” Khumalo
said.
Early this week, Jomic released a statement outlining the use of
vehicles under the committee’s jurisdiction in reaction to public concerns
that some political parties were abusing the vehicles for campaigning
purposes instead of their core business.
As part of Jomic mandate,
the vehicles were expected to be used to investigate incidents of political
violence and in peace- building programmes in the provinces and
districts.
Jomic also managed to meet members from civic society
organisations, faith-based organisations and traditional leaders as part of
its mandate to be the catalyst for fostering peace and reducing polarisation
in the country.
A
$2.5-million printing machine that Zimbabwe ordered for elections can only
arrive in August.
Zimbabwe has had to find an alternative way to
print ballots after it emerged that a $2.5-million press it ordered would
arrive only in August, well after the election.
The setback has once
again heightened concern about the country’s readiness for the election next
week.
However, Zimbabwe Electoral Commission (ZEC) chairperson Justice
Rita Makarau reportedly said yesterday that the printing of ballot papers
was complete and that “sufficient measures” had been put in place to ensure
a credible election.
The completion of the printing comes amid
concern from Morgan Tsvangirai’s Movement for Democratic Change that the
state-owned companies printing the ballot papers, Harare-based Fidelity
Printers and Printflow, fall directly under the control of Zimbabwe’s
security establishment, which openly supports Zanu-PF.
The MDC-T
wrote to the ZEC on Tuesday demanding access to the printing of the ballot
papers at the companies, fearing that they may be tampered
with.
According to a source close to the transaction, Printflow ordered a
Speedmaster SX 74 two-colour printing press from German-based Heidelberg
Printing Machines some months ago. However, the press has not yet reached
Durban harbour and Zimbabweans go to the polls next
Wednesday.
Delivery date “Unfortunately, the delivery dates don’t
tally with the date of the election. The estimated arrival dates are between
August 5 and 12,” the source said. “I think the buyer thought that elections
were going to be held later.”
The source said Printflow was
experiencing a number of logistical problems in printing the ballots, and
the company was under “enormous pressure”, worsened by technical
breakdowns.
Heidelberg South Africa’s representative, Eddie Schmidt,
yesterday confirmed that Printflow had bought the machine, but that it had
not yet been delivered in Zimbabwe.
Efforts to get comment from
Printflow were fruitless as the manager, Nomsa Sigale, said she was not in a
position to comment.
Makarau blamed Printflow for the chaos in last
week’s special voting by members of the security forces, telling the media
that the company had suffered a breakdown and that the ZEC had not been
informed in time.
On the day the special votes were cast, she said ballot
papers were not available and “some were coming through and others were
still being printed”. However, she insisted that there would be sufficient
ballots at next week’s elections.
Complaint to the ZEC Meanwhile,
Makarau’s announcement has thwarted the hopes of MDC-T policy co-ordinator
Eddie Cross, who had tried to become involved in the printing of ballot
papers by complaining to the ZEC that the process was not transparent
enough.
Cross said his party was having difficulty in disengaging
Zimbabwe’s security sector from democratic processes, including polling,
even though the law is now clear that they should not be
involved.
“So, in the letter to the ZEC we basically said, for the
election process to be transparent and accessible, political parties have to
be involved.”
Opposition sources also raised the question whether
Heidelberg was violating European Union sanctions by dealing with a
Zimbabwean firm alleged to have links with the security
forces.
However, the head of the EU Zimbabwe delegation, Aldo
Dell’Ariccia, told amaBhungane that Printflow was not among the companies
listed by the EU as subject to sanctions.
Bubi,
July 23, 2013 - Zanu-PF militias have threatened to axe to death an aspiring
MDC-T legislator, Mark Harold Ncube, if he conducts campaigns in
resettlement areas located here.
Ncube told Radio VOP that the
Zanu-PF militias have declared Bubi’s resettlement areas in Matabeleland
North province a no go area for the MDC-T on allegations that the party is
against the land reform programme.
Thousands of villagers were resettled
in Bubi during the violent and often chaotic fast track land reform exercise
of 2000 that President Robert Mugabe has defended as necessary to empower
black Zimbabweans who were previously displaced during the colonial
period.
“I have no access to the resettlement areas. The environment
there is just hostile against the MDC-T and the Zanu-PF supporters have not
made it a secret that the areas are no go areas for my party.
“As
recent as Sunday, the Zanu-PF supporters were moving around each and every
homestead searching for MDC-T regalia and burning it,” Ncube said.
Ncube
will square off against Zanu PF Bubi incumbent MP, Clifford Sibanda, Geneza
Sibanda an Independent candidate, John Zolani Dlamini of Zapu and Mkhuseli
Hadebe of the MDC party faction led by Professor Welshman Ncube.
Ncube
alleged that the Zanu PF supporters told him not to brainwash villagers with
MDC-T information in the resettlement areas of six Bubi
wards.
Sengezo Tshabangu, the MDC-T Matabeleland North provincial
chairperson also confirmed the reports when contacted for
comment.
“It’s a cause for concern for us. We have reported the matter to
the Joint Monitoring and Implementation Committee (JOMIC),” Tshabangu
said.
Recently, reports stated that villagers in Kombo resettlement area
in Insiza, Matabeleland South alleged that Zanu PF activists and war
veterans were threatening to evict them from their homes for refusing to
stop supporting the former opposition party.
Zanu PF activists were
reportedly compiling a list of all MDC-T supporters in the resettlement area
who will be evicted from their homesteads for not towing the party line.
By Farai Sibanda Bulawayo July
24 2013. As the country goes for elections next Wednesday contesting
political parties are promising "manna from heaven" to the disgruntled
electorate during their campaigns in the largely neglected southern part of
the country.In Matabeleland provinces people are being promised compensation
for Gukurahundi victims, implementation of devolution of power, revival of
companies that shutdown and preservation of late Vice President Joshua
Nkomo's legacy. However, observers say this can only be done if President
Robert Mugabe loses power. Speaking to Radio VOP MDC –T Bulawayo provincial
spokesperson Mandla Sibanda blamed Zanu PF on the underdevelopment of
Matabeleland region saying the party looted resources in the region for 33
years and dismally failed to develop the area. "When we get into power in a
few days time we are going to deal with the Matabeleland issue immediately
since the area had been neglected by Zanu PF for many years. The
revolutionary party has been looting resources such as gold, coal and other
minerals without giving back to the communities .We also want to implement
devolution of power and compensate victims of Gukurahundi so that the
country can heal and move forward,”said Sibanda.More than 20 000 people
were killed during the Gukurahundi massacres in the 1980s which were
perpetrated by Mugabe regime accusing the opposition Zapu, then led by Nkomo
for supporting dissidents. Edwin Ndlovu, spokesperson of smaller MDC led by
Welshman Ncube proferred: “We promise full devolution of power whereby
provinces control their own resources and also have a fair share of the
budget allocation to the provinces resulting in employment creation. We
shall also address water issuesthrough the rehabilitation of the Nyamandlovu
acquifer and the long overdue connection of the Matabeleland Zambezi Water
Pipeline.Human rights activist Mbuso Fuzwayo who is the coordinator of a
pressure group, Ibhetshu LikaZulu said: “The two MDC formations should make
sure they fulfill these promises to people of Matabeleland if they get into
power otherwise if they fail it will be their end as Matabeleland will dump
them for good as they did to the former ruling party”. Zanu PF Bulawayo
provincial chairman Killian Sibanda blasted the MDC formations saying that
there are lying to the electorate as they failed to develop Matabeleland in
the four years they have been in government. Sibanda said Zanu PF is going
to empower people of Matabeleland if it wins the next elections and will do
away with devolution which he said will divide people along tribal and
regional lines.“Our focus is on empowering people and the MDC is just lying
to people in Matabeleland. Why did they fail to develop the area in the four
years there were in government,” said Sibanda.Added Sibanda: “These Johnny
come late Western sponsored parties also want to divide people using
Gukurahundi; Yes it is unfortunate that people were killed but wecan’t have
some people trying to gain political mileage through the unfortunate
Gukurahundi.“As long as Mugabe is in power" observed political analyst
Mmeli Dube of Bulawayo Agenda " it will remain a pipe dream to develop
Matabeleland because he doesn’t really care about the region.
A KENYAN journalist has been detained in Zimbabwe for
entering the country to cover the July 31 polls without requisite
accreditation.
Charles Omondi was detained at the Harare International
Airport by immigration on Thursday on allegations that he did not have
adequate accreditation papers as required by Zimbabwe Electoral
Laws.
The Zimbabwe Electoral Commission is responsible for the
accreditation of all journalists intending to cover the polls next
Wednesday.
Human rights lawyers said on Thursday they were battling to
secure Omondi’s release who works for the Nairobi-based the Nation
newspaper.
“We sent a lawyer, Wellington Pasipanodya from our media
lawyers’ network but he was denied to see him,” said Jacqueline Chikakano, a
legal officer with the Media Institute of Southern Africa Zimbabwe
Chapter.
“He was told that he is not on Zimbabwe soil since he is yet to
be legally allowed into the country. I called an immigration official they
said there is nothing that can be done as he will be deported,” she
said.
There was no immediate comment from Immigration but sources said
Omondi was likely to be deported later Friday.
Long ruling
dictator faces elections July 31 but says the nation needs only one party,
his, and compares opponents to dead dogs.
By a correspondent / July
26, 2013
HARARE, ZIMBABWE In a somewhat chilling development for
Zimbabwe and its people, leader Robert Mugabe is beginning to send mixed
signals about whether he will tolerate the outcome of the elections he
himself picked to be held July 31.
Mr. Mugabe, who has ruled Zimbabwe
with an iron fist for the past 33 years, has begun to speak openly, as he
did Thursday at a political rally, about Zimbabwe needing only "one
party."
At Mugabe's rally on July 23 in the city of Mutare, about 150
miles southeast of the capital Harare, he ridiculed his main opponent, Prime
Minister Morgan Tsvangirai, in terms that set off fears that Mugabe will not
hand over power even if he loses the elections. The polls are now favoring
Mr. Tsvangirai, a former trade union leader who now sits in an unequal
"coalition" government with the long time ruler. Mugabe is now 89.
In
Mutare, in front of thousands of supporters, Mugabe said his rival
Tsvangirai was “a coward like my Uncle Shoniwa’s dog, Sekahurema, which used
to run away from game when we were hunting." Mugabe went on to say, "That
stupid dog died without killing a single prey, and the same will happen to
Tsvangirai."
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Mugabe leads the Zimbabwe African National Union Patriotic Front
(ZANU PF), against Tsvangirai’s younger Movement for Democratic Change
(MDC).
To the outside world this might appear to be the rhetoric of any
current hard fought contest. But many Zimbabweans read the statements by
Mugabe – and those recently of his security chiefs – as new hints that they
might not cede power to Tsvangirai and his organization in the event of a
loss.
Top army, police, and spy personnel have, in the run-up to the
elections, openly supported Mugabe's candidacy, and a number of them have
campaigned for the veteran leader.
A senior intelligence official
revealed to a reporter recently that some security groups wanted to “block
Tsvangirai by any means necessary, because he is an agent of the West and
wants to reverse the gains of our independence."
These “gains of
independence” were in reference to large farms violently taken from whites
in the last decades, and to the "indigenization" policies that require
foreign-owned companies to cede 51 percent of their companies to local
persons or firms.
Mugabe's party, ZANU PF, is using the same themes on
the campaign trail. The party is handing out tens of thousands of T-shirts
at rallies emblazoned with the words, "Indigenize, Empower, Develop and
Create Employment.”
While these policies are advertised as benefiting the
majority black population, it is a fairly open secret that Mugabe’s
compatriots and partners have instead taken the lion's share of benefits
from "land reform" and "indigenization."
Mugabe’s ministers, top
Army, and police chiefs, are now believed to be among the richest in the
region, benefiting mainly from the sale of diamond deposits in the Marange
region. Their holdings include businesses, farms, safari firms, large
houses, and cars.
Three companies in particular with close ties to Mugabe
– Anjin, Mbada Diamonds, and Marange Resources – also have solid links to
the Army.
Speaking to the BBC in London three months ago, Justice
Minister Patrick Chinamasa confirmed the Army will wait on their wings to
wrestle power from Tsvangirai if he wins.
As Mr. Chinamasa put it:
“Now if anyone is going to say, ‘When I come into power I’m going to reverse
that,’ they [the military] have every right to say, ‘Please, you are asking
for trouble.’ You will be asking for trouble.”
Chinamasa continued on
this line in the BBC interview: “He [Tsvangirai] will be asking for trouble
[if he] seeks to reverse the land reform program. There is no one who is
going to accept any enslavement."
Later, Zimbabwe's top justice official
seemed to imply that other countries were making it possible for Mugabe to
lose: "And if those countries impose for him [Tsvangirai] to win, that
result will not be acceptable. We will not accept it. We will just not
accept it. Isn’t that clear?”
The Institute of Security Studies, based in
Pretoria, South Africa, claims that Zimbabwe’s military commanders are
wealthier than those from South Africa – which has the most robust economy
in Africa.
The opposition party's organizing secretary, Nelson Chamisa,
says that while he is aware of rumors and plans to seize power by force, his
MDC party is confident that the police and Army will respect the
constitution.
“It is something we have heard for a long time, but as a
party we believe people will follow the constitution. Leaders are delivered
by the people and that must be respected. The people of Zimbabwe want change
and come the 6th of August we are ready to govern,” says Mr. Chamisa,
referring to the date of an ostensible handover, should Tsvangirai
win.
Unlike in the past where campaigning in Zimbabwe took place strictly
through gatherings and political rallies, the current campaign landscape has
greatly changed. A more independent press, particularly in print, includes
more than 10 newspapers. A private television station was established in
neighboring South Africa two weeks ago for the first time since
independence, although most Zimbabweans still receive their news from
state-run channels.
The Zimbabwe Broadcasting Corporation (ZBC) – a state
broadcaster – enjoys a monopoly within Zimbabwe and mostly airs Mugabe’s
rhetoric and positions.
Yet the biggest unexpected impact as elections
approach in a country of 13 million, comes from social media, where a
fictional Facebook character called Baba Jukwa has taken the country by
storm. Baba Jukwa, whose page sports the cartoon image of a small, elderly
man, has been pumping out material on the indiscretions and inside politics
among ZANU PF bigwigs in Harare to great attention.
Since joining
Facebook in March, "Baba Jukwa" has collected nearly 300,000
followers.
Baba Jukwa, or the writer behind him, claims to be a
former member of Mugabe’s ZANU PF party, and says he (or she) is a
“Concerned father, fighting nepotism and directly linking community with
their Leaders, Government, MPs and Ministers.”
ZANU PF minister
Saviour Kasukuwere last month admitted to the local media that Baba's posts
“had greatly affected his family” after Baba Jukwa accused him of carrying
out assassinations on political opponents. Mugabe has allegedly put $300,000
on the head of Baba Jukwa for revealing state secrets.
Commentator
Takura Zhangazha argues the popularity of foreign-based radio and television
stations during the current campaign owes to the “lack of opportunities” in
the media industry in Zimbabwe, pointing out that they "have not been
democratized."
The Monitor’s correspondent in Harare cannot be named for
security reasons.
The
support on the ground and election surveys show a tight race between
President Robert Mugabe and Prime Minister Morgan
Tsvangirai.
With less than a week before Zimbabwe’s general
elections, public opinion surveys and unfolding campaigns show that
President Robert Mugabe and Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai are neck and
neck, which is heightening the possibility of a run-off
poll.
Patterns of support emerging from the ongoing campaigns and rallies
and recent surveys by Freedom House and Afrobarometer show that next week’s
elections will be a close call for the Zanu-PF party against the Movement
for Democratic Change-Tsvangirai (MDC-T).
Judging by the political
rallies, Mugabe and Tsvangirai have held across the country, the former is
dominant in the three Mashonaland provinces, and the latter is influential
in towns and cities, which include the capital Harare and
Bulawayo.
Although Mugabe’s star rallies have attracted huge crowds, his
forays into Harare, Manicaland and Matabeleland are unlikely to dislodge
Tsvangirai’s dominance there. Mugabe still has a grip on Midlands Province,
but Masvingo will be the battleground.
The surveys show that voting
patterns and trends in the next elections will not dramatically change from
those of the 2008 polls.
During the first round of polling in the 2008
presidential election, which was deemed relatively free and fair, Mugabe
lost to Tsvangirai by 43.24% to 47.87%.
2008 polls Although Mugabe
lost the first round of voting to Tsvangirai in 2008, he won six out of 10
provinces. Tsvangirai only won four, but with huge numbers.
Mugabe won in
Mashonaland West, Mashonaland East, Mashonaland Central, Masvingo, Midlands
and Matabeleland South, and Tsvangirai got Harare, Bulawayo, Manicaland and
Matabeleland North. In terms of votes, Tsvangirai got 1 195 562 votes and
Mugabe 1 079 730 – meaning the MDC-T leader won by 115 832
votes.
According to Afrobarometer, 32% of the 2 400 Zimbabweans it
sampled said, if an election had been called last year, they would have
voted for Mugabe, whereas 31% said they would support
Tsvangirai.
Leader of the smaller breakaway MDC party, Welshman Ncube,
had 1% of the vote, although his party in the 2008 election won the most
seats in Matabeleland South. Simba Makoni, who was also its candidate of
choice, got 8.31% of the vote. Ncube has gained some traction and could
emerge as the kingmaker.
“Any future election in Zimbabwe remains too
close a call,” Afrobarometer said. “No political party in Zimbabwe can
afford to be complacent about an easy victory.”
Afrobarometer also
said Mugabe and Tsvangirai might not win the presidential election outright
in the first round, and suggests that another run-off is likely, although
Mugabe would want to win the first round outright to avoid going up against
a possible coalition between Tsvangirai and Ncube in the
run-off.
Zanu-PF and MDC-T tied In terms of party support, the
survey said Zanu-PF and the MDC-T were tied with 31% each. In a similar
survey in 2008, the MDC-T enjoyed a 57% support base, and Zanu-PF had
10%.
The Freedom House survey concluded “that in terms of the declared
survey-based support, it appears the MDC-T has been suffering a decline in
support, falling from 38% to 20% in the parliamentary vote from 2010 to
2012, in a period of about 18 months”.
“In contrast, the survey data
point to Zanu-PF having experienced a growth in popular support, moving from
17% to 31% in the same period.”
The voting patterns in the parliamentary
elections are also unlikely to change as rallies show that Zanu-PF and the
MDC-T are holding fast in their strongholds.
In 2008, the MDC-T won
all the seats in Bulawayo, 96.55% of the seats in Harare and 76.92% in
Manicaland. In Masvingo, it managed to win 53.85% of the seats and in
Matabeleland North, 38.46%. The party fared poorly in Mashonaland Central
(11.11%), in Matabeleland South (16.67%), in Mashonaland East (17.39%), in
Midlands (25.93%) and in Mashonaland West (27.27%).
Zanu-PF won 88.89% of
the seats in Mashonaland Central, 82.61% in Mashonaland East, 74.07% in
Midlands and 72.73% in Mashonaland West. In Masvingo, it won 46.15% of the
seats and in Matabeleland North it took 30.77%.
Poor showing The
party made a poor showing in Bulawayo, where it won no seats, as well as in
Harare with only 3.45%, in Manicaland (23.08%) and in Matabeleland South
(25%).
The MDC only won seats in Matabeleland South (58.33%) and
Matabeleland North (23.08%).
The 103 independent candidates fared
badly. Jonathan Moyo, who has rejoined Zanu-PF, retained his Tsholotsho
North seat in Matabeleland North. Other independents failed to win any seats
in 2008. Their situation is unlikely to change much.
But analysts say
there could be a winner in the first round. Zimbabwe Democracy Institute
director Pedzisai Ruhanya said Tsvangirai was likely to win.
“Having
attended and observed the presidential election campaigns between the main
political protagonists, Mugabe and Tsvangirai, and taking into account the
political environment and electoral administrative factors, my
interpretation of events is Tsvangirai will win.
“There are critical
observations of the electoral process that have assisted my conclusion of a
victory for Tsvangirai in this decisive election.The political environment
in the run-up to the election is similar, if not much better than the March
29 2008 poll in which the MDC parties won the presidential and parliamentary
elections respectively. This has helped Tsvangirai to traverse the breadth
and width of the country campaigning.”
By contrast, Ruhanya said Mugabe
was struggling on the campaign trail and has no message about the future,
something Ruhanya thinks will lead to his defeat next week.
However,
political commentator Ernest Mudzengi said, although Tsvangirai has the
support on the ground, it was difficult to predict the outcome, given that
Mugabe controls the electoral institutions.
“Tsvangirai has the numbers
on the ground and at any given time he can defeat Mugabe in a free and fair
election,” Mudzengi said.
“However, it is difficult to predict now that
the playing field is not level because Mugabe and Zanu-PF control the
electoral machinery, which in the past has worked to their advantage.”
Zimbabwe's President
Robert Mugabe is widely tipped to win again, but opposition parties are making
inroads. Meet his rivals.
President Robert Mugabe is
standing for a seventh time in an election that he describes as the "fight of
our lives".
He is hoping that his
platform of black empowerment and the usual anti-imperialist rhetoric will once
again return him to power. But, at 89, his age has become an issue more than
ever before, and it is his party's biggest liability.
His opponents have put his
age right at the centre of their campaigns. He has cut the number of rallies and
ordered his officials to cut out the traditional praise-singing sessions to make
rallies shorter. But he has defied his age and confounded his critics many times
on the campaign trail. Last week, he stood and spoke for two and a half hours at
a rally in Chinhoyi, berating the usual suspects from the British to
gays.
His main platform is his
campaign to deliver majority ownership of the economy to black Zimbabweans. His
party says the policy will "unlock" about $7.3-billion from foreign-held
entities, which would be used to support infrastructure and social services, and
provide capital to black-owned businesses.
Under Mugabe's plan, 1138
companies in 12 different sectors would be targeted over the next five
years.
Indigenisation would "be
the centrepiece of the work programme of the government over the next five
years", says Zanu-PF. Mugabe's indigenisation policy would create 2.265-million
jobs, and grow the economy by about 9% a year by 2018.
But Zanu-PF's swanky
campaign is hobbled by questions about Mugabe's age. The Movement for Democratic
Change (MDC) has said his age is a "national security issue", and his speeches
have been laboured in recent weeks.
One Associated Press
report captured the age debate by stating that Mugabe was "born as the Ottoman
Empire drew its final breath and when Calvin Coolidge was still in the White
House".
But Mugabe is hoping he
can still rely on his traditional rural support base to pull him through.
Although violence is not a major factor in this campaign, the fear of reprisals
remains in parts of the country where Zanu-PF has control.
He still enjoys the
support of the military and, according to his opponents, those running the
elections are loyal to him. However, unrest among rank-and-file police officers
over the chaotic "special voting" for security forces recently suggests his
support in the security sector does not go too far beyond the top
brass.
Morgan Tsvangirai
Tsvangirai (61) is
challenging Mugabe for a third time, hoping finally to end his losing run
against the veteran leader.
He has not shifted from his mantra of
"change" – he does not need to because the message still finds support among his
mostly young and largely poor urban supporters who are desperate to get rid of
Zanu-PF.
The personal scandals that
rocked his candidacy in 2012 put a major dent in his credentials as a credible
alternative to Mugabe, and opinion polls showed some of the sheen had worn off
his party. Poor service delivery under MDC-controlled councils has also hurt his
party.
He has, however, over recent weeks managed to turn his fortunes
around with a vibrant campaign that has drawn huge crowds to his
rallies.
The odds are stacked against him: the top brass in the security
forces, made up of war veterans, remains strongly opposed to Tsvangirai, who
they see as a lackey of Western powers. In the four years his party was in
government, it could not get enough power to influence how elections are run,
and his party claims a plot to rig the poll.
However, he has been able to
campaign in Zanu-PF strongholds, as he did in the first round of 2008, when he
got more votes than Mugabe. In 2008, Tsvangirai won 47.9% of the vote to
Mugabe's 43.2%.
Tsvangirai has put jobs at the centre of his campaign. He
says his economic plan, based mostly on foreign investment, would create a
million jobs in five years.
Welshman Ncube
Ncube, a founding
secretary general of the MDC, leads a breakaway wing of the MDC. He is unlikely
to win the poll, but may garner just enough seats in Parliament to enable him to
be a key player in the next government.
His candidates held the
balance of power in the last Parliament, giving his party some leverage. His
campaign platform, "devolution is the new revolution", may win him some votes in
deprived southern regions that have long hoped for more administrative power.
However, his critics say he has focused too much lately on his rivalry with
Tsvangirai, launching his own campaign much later than the other
candidates.
Dumiso Dabengwa
A war hero and a former
home affairs minister, Dabengwa (74) is the leader of the Zimbabwe African
People's Union (Zapu).
He was head of intelligence for the military wing
of Zapu during the war, and was known as the "Black Russian" because he was
trained in Moscow.
In 1982, as tensions
simmered between Mugabe and Zapu leader Joshua Nkomo, he was charged with
treason. He was acquitted because of a lack of evidence, but Mugabe used his
powers to jail Dabengwa for four years.
He later joined Mugabe in
a unity government after Nkomo signed a unity agreement to end hostilities that
had left thousands dead in Matabeleland and the Midlands.
In 2008, he
left his position in Zanu-PF's top council, the politburo, to back Simba Makoni,
who had also left the party to stand against Mugabe.
He announced later
that the "Zapu component" of the united Zanu-PF was pulling out of Zanu-PF, but
found no support from his former comrades, who stayed with Mugabe.
He has
no chance of winning the poll, but has forged an alliance with Ncube, which
could win the party some votes in the Matabeleland provinces.
Kisinoti Mukwazhe
A fringe candidate whose
only contribution to the campaign so far has been to be the butt of jokes on
social media, Mukwazhe is head of the Zimbabwe Development Party, which was
formed on the eve of the 2008 polls. He has vowed to raise the minimum wage if
elected.
HARARE — Twenty–one academically gifted Zimbabwean
students received $5.6 million in scholarships Thursday from various
American universities under the United States Achievers Program
(USAP).
The students told VOA Studio 7 during a sendoff ceremony in the
capital they are excited to be going to pursue studies in the United
States.
Clement Kudakwashe Nyanhongo, who attended Marist Nyanga High
School, says he will be pursing his studies at Dartmouth
College.
Lipscomb University-bound Theresa Nyapokoto, who graduated from
Monte Casino Girls High, says she never dreamt of studying in the United
States.
United States Ambassador to Zimbabwe, Mr. Bruce Wharton urged the
students to take their studies seriously and contribute positively to
Zimbabwe’s development.
Award winning human rights lawyer, Beatrice
Mtetwa, who was guest of honour, urged the students to return home after
completing their studies and be change agents in local
communities.
Eve Gatawa, who studied at St. Lawrence University under the
USAP, commended the program saying it has broadened her mind on various
issues.
Gatawa is running her own business in the motor and mining
industries.
The USAP program which is meant for academically gifted
students from economically disadvantaged families was established by the
United States Embassy in Harare in 1999.
Three thousand students have
so far benefited from the program.
Vince Musewe says the
administration of the voting process is key to the upcoming
elections
"Except the Lord build the house, they labour in vain that
build it;" Unfortunately, we conveniently forget this part of Psalm 127.1,
and Zimbabwe is a typical example where the devil has taken over. Because of
this, the foundation and universal principles of building a stable and
sustainable democracy have been eclipsed by the selfish ambition of power,
greed and corruption.
This is probably my last letter to you
Zimbabweans in the Diaspora, before we go into a new Zimbabwe that is based
on the respect of our rights and freedom. However, before we get there, I
think it is important to reflect on the recent events, lest we forget where
we have come from.
I am flabbergasted at Rita Makarau, an allegedly
respected judge, who has presided over the embarrassing process of special
votes. The assumption that judges are competent managers must now surely go
out of the window. The saddest part of it is the blame game for the fiasco
and sheer incompetence is being defended by blaming the opposition parties.
There is absolutely no way failure to process 80,000 votes can result in the
successful processing of 6 million votes. It is therefore impossible for the
coming elections to be free and fair as long as the same people preside over
them. If I had the power, I would immediately replace the ZEC because they
have failed the test.
I sincerely hope the SADC and the AU do not
disappoint as they are well known for. I have seen their cars driving around
town and at local hotels. Rather a waste of resources for me given that
there is impending fraud at the ZEC. What is the point of observing a
fraudulent process? Simply because there is little violence does not mean
that an election will be free and fair. It is the administration of the
voting process that is key.
The townships are colorful these days, with
red shirts and caps, green and yellow regalia. I hear that there was a
stampede recently in Chitungwiza and some one died there. We have not been
told why, but I hope it was not a stampede for silly shirts and caps. It is
rather pitiful that the masses do not learn from history and always forget
why they are poor. Those bearing gifts are everywhere, hoping to get a seat
in parliament, it is a comedy. The sheer foolishness of the masse is evident
everywhere, once again they are being told how important they are.
We
must all be thankful to Baba Jukwa who has shown us how rotten ZANU (PF) is.
My hope is that he never reveals himself and continues to expose
incompetence, graft and corruption, even if the next government is MDC. We
need you Baba Jukwa because you are an essential part of an accountable
leadership we wish to create in Zimbabwe.
The chaos team is hard at
work and even Tsvangirai has admitted that elections will be rigged. From my
conversations with ordinary Zimbabweans, it seems that most are anticipating
two scenarios.
The first scenario is a rigged election, where ZANU (PF)
wins majority seats in parliament and the presidency. The AU and SADC
endorse the result because there has been no significant violence. This was
the aim of the chaos team in the first place. It will be a sad day for all
of us and democracy if that happens. In such a case, Zimbabwe will not
recover and we will see the economic situation remaining the same if not
worse. We will see intensified indigenization, the raiding by ZANU (PF)
cronies of any company that shows signs of life followed by capital flight
and zero foreign investments except from the Chinese. Zimbabwe will become a
Chinese colony and the looting will continue.
The second scenario is
that of an outright win by the MDC. In this scenario, we may get a bit of
trouble from the generals, but we expect the SADC and AU to come out
strongly, if not militarily, and protect the vote. We may also see ordinary
folk going out in their numbers to protect their vote. We could also see an
isolation of the generals and those resisting change. That would be good for
democracy. In such a case we would see Zimbabwe slowly stabilizing
politically as the losers accept the new reality, and we will witness the
economic revival that we are all anxious for.
The question is what us
ordinary Zimbabweans should do if ZANU (PF) successfully rigs the elections.
I think we should not rest, we should quickly establish a new movement of
ordinary folk that seeks and demands democracy and accountability and the
re-run of free and fair elections. We cannot accept that its okay and it
should be business as usual. That would be irresponsible. We can't leave
that responsibility to the opposition political parties alone. The only
hurdle we face is the apathy of Zimbabweans. It is sad that most people are
more concerned about their careers and their bank accounts and that is what
the chaos team continues to take advantage of. It's disgusting.
Those
in the Diaspora can't do much on the ground of course and that is also a
major drawback. I however insist that there is something we must do if it is
evident that our vote has been stolen.
I leave you with much hope and
expectation that at last the dictator will go and we shall have an
opportunity to contribute to a better Zimbabwe, in this life time. If that
doesn't happen we are damned but we must no sit back and
complain.
Vince Musewe is an economist based in Harare. You may
contact him on vtmusewe@gmail.com
We, Solidarity Peace Trust, have today uploaded a selection of 2013 election
campaign publications from Zimbabwe's main political parties to our website (www.solidaritypeacetrust.org).
The set of twelve images can be accessed via this link: http://bit.ly/1bVVutX
. Three images from the set have been included with this mailing for your
information. (They can be viewed in a larger size on our website).
For further information, please contact Selvan Chetty - Deputy
Director, Solidarity Peace Trust
Email: selvan@solidaritypeacetrust.org
Tel: +27 (39) 682 5869 Fax: +27 (39) 682
5869
Address:
Suite 4 3rd Floor MB Centre 49 Aiken Street Port Shepstone
4240 Kwazulu-Natal South Coast
Zimbabweans go to the
polls next week to vote in what many fear will be a flawed election run by an
ill-prepared electoral commission. In this Q&A,Gwinyayi
Dzinesa, Senior Researcher with the Conflict Prevention and Risk
Analysis Division at the Institute for Security Studies, talks about the run-up
to the election, the role of the international community and what would happen
if President Robert Mugabe (89) would be re-elected.
Dzinesa says the
Southern African Development Community (SADC) and the African Union (AU) are
trying to make sure the elections can be declared free and fair, in order to
provide them with an 'exit strategy' from the Zimbabwe political crisis. He also
says SADC needs to have a plan in place to deal with security chiefs and
Zimbabwe African National Union - Patriotic Front (ZANU-PF) hardliners who are
likely to refuse a possible victory for the opposition.
Is Zimbabwe ready to
hold elections next week?
I doubt it, judging
from the shambolic manner in which the Zimbabwe Election Commission (ZEC)
handled the special voting of security forces. It doesn't have adequate
resources, neither is there sufficient time for the ZEC to put in place viable
structures. People applauded the way it handled the constitutional referendum,
but that was a simple, one-ballot vote and voters did not have to register prior
to the vote. The country's coalition government also fell short in laying the
ground for a credible vote in areas such as reform of the country's security
services and the state media, and cleaning of the voters'
roll.
Has there been a
manipulation of the voters' roll?
I don't have
substantive evidence of this, but the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC)
parties allege that ZANU-PF, in collusion with an Israeli company, was trying to
manipulate the voters' roll to make sure that certain eligible voters are not
counted and that some are deregistered. In addition to this, there was also
suppression of voter registration and education in some opposition
strongholds.
Why did President
Mugabe refuse to postpone the elections?
This is the main
concern. This past weekend the SADC Troika in its official communiqué expressed
its apprehension with Zimbabwe's readiness to conduct credible elections.
President Jakaya Kikwete of Tanzania, who is the chair of the Troika, expressed
his concern that SADC's advice (to postpone elections) was not taken on board by
the Zimbabwean Constitutional Court. It is clear that President Mugabe and
ZANU-PF are eager to push through elections because they are confident of
romping home to victory. From day one President Mugabe has made it clear that he
was forced into the Government of National Unity and ZANU-PF now wants to regain
the political hegemony. Even if we don't know the outcome of these elections, we
do get a sense of déjà vu, of a pre-determined outcome in favour of ZANU-PF,
given that ZANU-PF seems to be pulling the strings in terms of the electoral
process.
Does this eagerness to
go ahead with the elections next week have anything to do with Mugabe's
age?
There have been
persistent reports that ZANU-PF wants to proceed with elections while President
Mugabe can still participate in a campaign given his advanced age and reports
about his ill health. We do see him, incredibly, leading his party during this
campaign, including holding one 90-minute speech, so one cannot rule this out.
President Mugabe also wants to win a relatively peaceful election to
rehabilitate his image; that's why he has been calling for political
reconciliation and peaceful political activities.
In 2008 the police and
military were accused of orchestrating a bloody crackdown against the
opposition. Is it different this time?
The run-up to elections
has been relatively peaceful compared to 2008. There have been isolated
incidents where security forces have targeted certain human rights and political
activists and incidents where police have called off certain MDC rallies on the
basis that they don't have sufficient personnel to ensure the security of these
meetings. That is why the two MDC formations were pushing for the agreement of a
code of conduct that the security forces could adhere to in this political
process so that they conduct themselves in a non-partisan matter, and enforce
political leaders' calls to prevent the violence and intimidation that has
undermined democratic electoral processes in the past.
So while we are not
going to see a bloodbath as in 2008, there is still the concern that if Zimbabwe
was to go into a run-off we might have the security sector abusing its authority
to influence the electoral process instead of securing the vote. Security sector
chiefs are on record that they will not accept anything other than an election
victory for President Mugabe. That means that SADC and the AU, as guarantors of
Zimbabwe's joint political agreement and the electoral process, will have to
come up with strategies on how to best handle a possible MDC
victory.
Are you talking of a
possible military coup should the MDC win the election? Are these forces so
powerful as to threaten an MDC government?
Security chiefs and
some ZANU-PF hardliners fear that an MDC victory would efface the role of the
liberation struggle in the birth of Zimbabwe and that they might be immersed in
political and economic uncertainty. So there is a realistic chance that they
might voice their disapproval of the election results. But I really don't see
them staging a coup.
Would SADC and AU
observers have the courage to say these elections are flawed if they see on the
ground that it is not free and fair?
I don't think SADC and
the AU are ready to openly declare that the elections have violated regional and
continental guidelines governing democratic elections, regardless of the fact
that the ZEC and the country are not ready to conduct the polls. We can get a
sense of this from the manner in which the SADC Troika toned down its communiqué
and from the AU statements over the weekend which said that the environment in
Zimbabwe is conducive for free and fair elections. I think between now and 31
July we will see both bodies trying to portray Zimbabwe as being ready. It
remains to be seen whether behind the scenes they are going to talk to the
Zimbabwean political parties and the electoral institutions to ensure that there
are credible polls.
We now also have
certain segments of the international community, including the European Union
(EU) and United States (US), saying they are taking their cue from SADC on
whether the elections are free and fair. So given that the run-up has been
relatively peaceful, despite some problems here and there, we will probably see
SADC and the AU giving the elections a clean bill of health in order to set
Zimbabwe for engagement with the broader international community. Clearly the
two bodies also need an exit strategy from Zimbabwe and if they declare the
elections to be credible that is what they will get.
The EU and the US seem
to be taking a back seat. Some say they're having a rethink because China is
cashing in on all the good diamond deals in Zimbabwe?
One can't discount the
'China factor'. One also certainly doesn't see the same hostility like that
between President Mugabe and former British Prime Minister Tony Blair. The
scrapping of some sanctions against Zimbabwe has been seen as a sign of the EU
warming up towards President Mugabe, but one has to consider that the so-called
targeted sanctions were largely symbolic and they actually became an unnecessary
distraction. That is why even SADC had to lobby for the lifting of those
sanctions.
If Mugabe is re-elected
and decides to retire, who will succeed him?
This is the critical
question that I call WHAM: What happens after Mugabe? When endorsing Zimbabwe's
new compromise constitution, the three coalition governing parties agreed to a
clause that in the event that the winning candidate of these elections decides
to step down, we are not going to get new elections, but the party could anoint
his or her successor. ZANU-PF seemingly has a clear leadership structure, which
provides for the first vice-president, in this case Joice Mujuru, to take over
if President Mugabe decides to retire after winning the
elections.
But one also has to
keep in mind that there are various powerful factions within ZANU-PF, including
one reportedly led by the current defence minister Emmerson Mnangagwa. President
Mugabe has been talking about preparing for his retirement someday, but recently
stated he won't be going into an election in order to retire. Some actually say
he is not sincere about handing over power. Instead, he is playing the various
factions against one another to his own advantage to boost his case to hang on
to the top job.
Bill Watch 31/2013 of 25th July [Special Voting Debacle]
BILL
WATCH 31/2013
[25th July 2013]
6
Days to Elections
This bulletin will
cover the special
voting debacle.
ZEC’s
application to the Constitutional Court to try and remedy it will be covered in
the next bulletin.
Special
Voting Debacle
A
Difference of Opinion Before the Special Voting Day
ZEC
chair says ZEC ready to roll
ZEC
chairperson Rita Makarau said on 1st July that ZEC’s machinery was “ready to
roll”.
Minister
of Finance said election preparations were “a nightmare”, “a horror
movie”
Finance
Minister Tendai Biti on 9th July described
preparations for elections as "a
nightmare" ..."We don't have the
money for these elections and everyone knows it. It's a horror movie except that
you are not watching the movie, you are part of it," he said.
Problems
over Financing the Election
The
Minister of Finance
has said he is working on funding an election budget of $130 million, pared down
from ZEC’s original estimate of $164 million.But he was having difficulties raising the
necessary amount – money was so short that Government expenditure was being
limited to payment of salaries only.By
late last week the Ministry has managed to channel some funds to ZEC, but there
was still a shortfall of $85 million.
As
the ZANU-PF
component in the Inclusive Government had refused to accept UN funding for ZEC
because the UN wanted to send their pre-election assessment team in before
agreeing to fund, the Minister of Finance said he had approached SADC for
assistance, but so far nothing had been forthcoming.[Comment: This is hardly surprising as SADC
had suggested to the inclusive government that the election date be moved till
later and certain reforms be undertaken first].The EU have threatened to withdraw someassistance to ZEC for equipment.The EU Ambassador said they said they had
accepted that they could not bring in a full observer team and would have to be
content with fielding five observers from the locally-based EU mission staff,
but he deplored the barring of the two technical experts who would have merely
provided support services to these observers.
Special
Voting: 14th and 15th July
The
first test of ZEC’s readiness to “roll” came with the two days of “special
voting” on Sunday 14th and Monday 15th July.Special voting days were provided to enable registered voters in the
Army, Air Force, Police Force and Prison Service, and electoral officers
employed by ZEC, to vote early if their official duties would make them unable
to vote in their own constituencies on the regular polling day, 31st July.
A
new procedureThe
special voting procedure is a recent innovation.It was introduced by the Electoral Amendment
Act of 2012, which inserted an entirely new Part XIVA [sections 81 to 81H] into
the Electoral Act.There is also a set
of regulations: the Electoral (Special and Postal Voting) Regulations, as
gazetted in SI 84/2013 on 7th June.
What
special voting replacedIn
previous elections, registered voters in these categories had to resort to
postal voting, and there was widespread criticism and distrust of the way Army,
Air Force, Police and Prison Service authorities intervened in the process, with
members of these forces having to complete their ballot papers in barracks or
similar security force premises under the supervision of superior officers and
generally under conditions incompatible with secrecy of the ballot.As a result postal voting by members of the
security forces was almost universally seen as neither secret nor done with the
freedom of choice to which all voters are entitled.Consequently the system enjoyed zero
credibility, and the MDC parties insisted it be replaced when amendments to the
Electoral Act were negotiated and agreed by the GPA parties in 2011-2012.
What
special voting involvedThe relevant statutory provisions require
special voting to take place on a day or days designated by ZEC which must be
at least 16 days before the general polling day; so the 14th and 15th July
were the latest days allowed by the law for the process.This 16-day [or longer] period is intended to
give ZEC enough time to get the special voting ballot papers [in their special
envelopes – see below] distributed to the relevant constituencies and wards in
time to be included in the counting of votes at ward level, along with the votes
cast at regular polling stations on 31st July.
Those
wishing to utilise the facility had to apply to ZEC on a prescribed form and, if
their entitlement to a special vote was accepted by ZEC, ZEC then authorised
them to cast their ballots by the special voting procedure.Each duly authorised special voter then had
to cast his or her vote on one of the two special polling days at the special
voting centre indicated by ZEC when granting authorisation.Waiting for each authorised voter at his or
her special voting centre would be three unmarked ballot papers [for
Presidential, Parliamentary and local authority elections] in an envelope
showing his or her constituency and ward.
Special
voting centres
had to be designated by ZEC and be away from police stations, army camps and
other security force premises.And they
had to be managed by ZEC [not by security force authorities] on the same
principles as apply to all polling stations on the general polling day.Police would play no greater role at the
special polling centres than at polling stations on the general polling
day.An
authorised voter wanting to cast his or her special vote would go to the
designated special voting centre, and on establishing his or her identity, be
given the three ballot papers and the envelope supplied by ZEC inscribed with
his or her constituency and ward, and go to a screened voting compartment to
mark the ballot papers in secret.Having
marked the ballot papers, the voter would place all three ballot papers in the
envelope, then seal it and place it in the ballot box.
Candidates
and/or their election agents and accredited observers
were entitled to observe the entire process from pre-polling sealing of the
ballot box to sealing of the package containing the envelopes described below.
At
close of polling
the ballot box was opened, and the envelopes in it counted, but not opened, and
then sealed in a package to be conveyed to the Chief Elections Officer at the
ZEC Command Centre in Harare, together with an accompanying note from the
special voting officer in charge of the voting centre recording the number of
envelopes placed in the package, to enable checking of the package’s contents
later.
When
are the envelopes opened? The
sealed packages containing the envelopes from the special voting centres, having
been conveyed by secure means to the Chief Elections Officer at the ZEC National
Command Centre in Harare, were opened and the envelopes in them sorted for
distribution, still unopened, to the constituencies and wards marked on
the envelopes, with accompanying notes recording the number of envelopes sent to
each ward.This centralised opening and
sorting of packages exercise started at the National Command Centre, in the
presence of candidates and their agents, on 19th July and was due to be
completed on 24th July, with distribution to constituency and ward level
following immediately.
Sealed
in special ballot boxAt least two days before 31st July, notice
must be given to candidates and their agents, and observers, of the time and
date when the ward elections officer will seal the special ballot box.[This has been done: daily newspapers of 24th July
published lengthy ZEC supplements giving notice that in all 1958 wards this
exercise will start at 10 am on Friday 26th July and listing the locations where
it will take place.]At that time the ward elections officer must
show those present the empty ballot box, then seal it and immediately place in
it, still unopened, all the envelopes received from the Chief Elections
Officer.Agents and observers should
ensure the number of envelopes corresponds to the number recorded on the
accompanying note sent to the ward with the sealed envelopes.The ward elections officer must then “make adequate provision for the safe
custody of the ballot box”, with the envelopes inside and its aperture
sealed [Electoral Act, section
81F(12)].
Opening
of special ballot boxFinally, and only after close of polling on
31st July, the special ballot box must be opened, the envelopes inside must be
opened and the ballot papers inside the envelopes must be counted and the
figures included in the ward return along with the figures transcribed from the
polling station returns.All this must
be done in the presence of candidates or their agents and observers who wish to
be present.
MDC-T
Court Challenge to the Special Voting Process
According
to initial reports, ZEC authorised approximately 87 000 persons to cast special
votes [140 Army, 69 000 Police Force, 2 000 Prison Service, 15 000 ZEC].The huge figure of 69 000 for the Police
Force naturally raised suspicions when the co-Minister of Home Affairs
[responsible for the police force] and the Minister of Finance [whose Ministry
manages the police payroll] said the authorised official ZRP establishment was
just over 40 000.ZEC said it had to
take ZRP assurances on ZRP numbers on trust.MDC-T was not satisfied, and its chairperson Morgan Komichi went to the
High Court seeking an order nullifying the special voting procedure.Closed hearings took place in chambers before
Judge-President Chiweshe last week, with the lawyers instructed not to divulge
any details, and the Attorney-General
being requested to brief the court on ZRP numbers.On Friday 19th July Justice Chiweshe
dismissed the MDC-T application, saying his written reasons for judgment would
be handed down later; they are still awaited.
Special
Voting Fiasco
As
it turned out, on the 14th and 15th July, ZEC failed miserably in its first
test, raising serious doubts about its capacity to handle a potential 6 million
plus voters in only one day when it comes to 31st July.The special voting was a fiasco.Voting centres failed to open on time or at
all, equipment and ballot papers and ballot envelopes arrived late or not at
all.At some centres crowds of
frustrated special voters reacted with behaviour unbecoming members of
disciplined forces.In one incident
reported in the State-controlled press, spectators were treated to the spectacle
of the police riot squad being deployed to quell unruly police officers.In another – Mount Pleasant – voters
expressed their displeasure by smashing windows at the voting centre.There have even been reports of senior police
officers taking over from ZEC officials and supervising
voting.
Comment:Is lack of discipline in the disciplined
forces the simple explanation for these outbreaks of misbehaviour by frustrated
would-be special voters?Or were they,
having welcomed this first-ever opportunity to vote away from their barracks and
supervision of commanding officers, and now seeing this opportunity being taken
away from them, protesting at being disenfranchised in this fashion, and in
circumstances suggesting to some that what was happening was actually designed
to limit their free vote?
How
many special voters actually voted?
Over
40% of the authorised special voters were unable to cast votes.According to the latest figures from ZEC, 63
268 were authorised to cast special votes, but only 37 108 persons actually
managed to vote.
Comment:
In view of the suspicions that the special voting fiasco has aroused, it is
important that these figures be verified as genuine by independent
observers.
ZEC’s
Explanation for Failure
ZEC
has explained that the special voting timetable was very tight, with progress
affected by, among other factors:
·late
determination of nomination appeals by the Electoral Court [last decision 11th
July] [with a suggestion from the ZEC deputy chair, later taken up the police
chief spokesperson, that this was aggravated by a number of frivolous and
unnecessary appeals by MDC-T[see comment
below]
·delays
in getting the necessary information for printing of ballot-papers from the
additional candidates whose success in their appeals to the Electoral Court
necessitated last-minute changes to the ballot-papers
·power-cuts
and equipment failures at the printers contracted to print the ballot papers,
when the timetable was so tight that everything depended on the printing jobs
being completed without delays.
Comment:Surely ZEC should have anticipated the
possible difficulties of preparing for an election in so short a time –
especially with a new procedure for special voting having to be finished, and
then, instead of merely going along with the tight timetable imposed on it by
the President in his election proclamation, it should have asserted its
constitutional independence and grasped the opportunity, afforded by the
application for an extension of the 31st July election date, to inform the
Constitutional Court that it needed and would welcome the additional time that
an extension would allow.There will be
other new procedures, such as those involved in the new system of partial
proportional representation, on the general polling day, affecting over 6
million voters
Having
accepted a tight timetable, ZEC should have ensured that ballot papers were
digitally prepared, based on the outcome of the nomination courts, and made
contingency plans for immediate alterations based on appeals to the Electoral
Court and then the outcomes of those appeals?[Note: The frivolous appeals accusation against MDC-T
has not been substantiated.As the
appeal results show [see Bill Watch 30/2013 of 18th July], disappointed would-be
ZANU-PF
candidates also exercised the right to appeal against nomination court
decisions].
In
Next Bill Watch
ZEC
admits thatthis debacle was its
responsibility – not the fault of the special voters who could not vote.And it has assured those special voters that
they will still be able to vote on 31st July.This assurance has raised legal and constitutional issues and resulted in
another Constitutional Court case to be heard on 26th July – to be covered in
the next Bill Watch.
Veritas
makes every effort to ensure reliable information, but cannot take legal
responsibility for information supplied
Bill Watch 32/2013 of 26th July [Special Voting Debacle Prompts ZECConstitutional Court Application]
BILL
WATCH 32/2013
[26th July 2013]
Special
Voting Debacle Prompts ZEC Application to Constitutional
Court
Special
Voting a Debacle: Many Unable to Vote
Special
voting on 14th and 15th July was not a success.Of the by ZEC authorised 63 268 special voters
– this number was contested by MDC in court, but Judge President Chiweshe
[Chairperson of the Zimbabwe Election Commission during the last elections and
before he became a judge Brigadier General and the most senior army lawyer]
dismissed the case.According to ZEC
only 37 108 persons actually managed to vote.[See Bill Watch 31/2013 of 24th
July for details of procedures to register for the special vote, the court case
questioning the number of police applications, and description of the chaotic
process and the reasons ZEC put forward for this.]ZEC claims 26 160 voters were unable to vote
– in spite of some of the polling officers keeping the polling going in
contravention to the Electoral Act until the next morning.Of this figure it cannot be ascertained how
many did not turn up and how many came to vote and were unable to because of a
failure in ZEC logistics.
ZEC’s
Response: Those Turned Away Will Vote on 31st July
ZEC’s
immediate response was to issue a statement saying that ZEC would ensure that
all authorised special voters who had been unable to vote on the special voting
days of 14th and 15th July would still be able to exercise their vote on 31st
July.
ZEC
solution inconsistent with Electoral Act
MDC-T’s
Secretary-General Tendai Biti promptly wrote to ZEC pointing out – correctly –
that ZEC’s proposed action would be directly contrary to express provisions of
the Electoral Act; he also threatened court action to stop ZEC acting as
suggested.Section 81B(2) of the Act
states “a voter who has been authorised
to cast a special vote shall not be entitled to vote in any other manner than by
casting a special vote in terms of this Part”; andsection 81F(1) underscores this by
making it a criminal offence for an authorised special voter to attempt to cast
a vote “at an ordinary polling station
... whether or not he or she has cast a special vote at the same
election”.[And section
5 of the Special Voting Regulations, SI 84/2013, gives practical effect to these
provisions of the Act by laying down that once a special vote has been
authorised by ZEC, the voter’sname must
automatically be crossed out from
the voters roll to be used on 31st July.]
ZEC
Meets Political Parties for Discussions
On
22nd July ZEC met political parties to discuss the problem and it was agreed
that there was a need to give all special voters who failed to vote through no
fault of their own another chance to vote.[In Veritas’ view this question should not
properly be put to political parties – it would subject any political party who
would rather follow the correct election procedures to undue propaganda pressure
if they were to disagree.This is
exactly why there is law – so that laid down procedures are followed and are not
open to political manipulation.It also
raises the question of why this step was taken in this particular instance and
not when ZEC – against the provisions of the constitution –decided not to allow
prisoners, those in old age people’s homes, hospital patients and staff and the
millions in the Diaspora to vote.See
below on the legal rights of these groups of people to vote.]
ZEC
said they would explore how to allow the disappointed special voters to vote
legally, given the problem posed by the Electoral Act provisions and a
apparent/alleged inconsistency between those provisions and the new
Constitution’s statement of the State’s duty to ensure that every eligible voter
has an opportunity to vote [section
155(2)(b)].[ZEC’s scope is limited.Amending legislation is not a possibility – there is no Parliament, and
the President cannot step in with amending regulations under the
Presidential
Powers (Temporary Measures)
Act, because an amendment to the Electoral Act at this late stage is ruled out
by section 157(5) of the new Constitution.A
Commissioner addressing election observers at an official briefing has however
indicated ZEC’s determination to succeed in allowing disappointed special voters
to have their votes “whatever the law
says”.
ZEC
Application to the Constitutional Court
ZEC’s
proposed solution was for its lawyers on 23rd July to lodge an application in
the Constitutional Court for an order that will permit the casting of votes on
31st July by those members of the security forces and electoral officials who
did not cast their special votes on 14th or 15th July.
Legal
basis of the application
The
application is based on ZEC’s admitted responsibility for the substantial
failure of the special voting exercise and the disappointed voters’
blamelessness, and on provisions of the new Constitution, which:
·spell
out both the right to vote and the State’s duty to honour that right: sections
67(3)(a) [“... every Zimbabwean citizen
who is of or over 18 years of age has the right to vote in all elections
...”] and 155 [“The State must take
all appropriate measures ... to ensure that ... every citizen who is eligible to
vote in an election has an opportunity to vote and must facilitate voting by
persons with disabilities or special needs”]
·in
section 2 establishes the Constitution’s supremacy over all other law, including
the Electoral Act, and not only states that the Constitution overrides any other
law which is inconsistent with it, but also says this: “(2) The obligations imposed by this
Constitution on the State are binding on every person, natural or juristic,
including the State and all executive, legislative and judicial
institutions and agencies of government at every level, and must be
fulfilled by them.”
Applicants
and respondents
The
application names two applicants: ZEC and its chairperson Justice Rita
Makarau; and 20 respondents: the Commissioner General of Police, the
Commissioner General of Prisons, the Commander of the Defence Forces, the GPA
political parties, the President, the Minister of Justice
and Legal Affairs,
the Attorney-General,
and 11 other political parties [meaning that every political party with
candidates in the elections is cited].
Draft
of the order sought by ZEC
The
order which ZEC wishes the court to issue is as follows:“It is
hereby ordered that the 1st applicant” [i.e., ZEC] “should take all necessary steps to ensure
that its officers” [i.e., ZEC electoral officials] “and officers under the command of the 1st,
2nd and 3rd respondents” [i.e., police, prisons and defence forces
personnel] “authorised to cast ballots in
terms of section 81 of the Electoral Act who failed to cast their ballots on
14th and 15th July 2013, be allowed to cast their ballots on 31st July
2013.”ZEC, not surprisingly, does
not ask for its legal costs to be paid by the respondents.
[Comment:This order they are requesting leaves far too
much discretion to ZEC.It should be
expanded to make it quite clear that the beneficiaries will have to vote in
their own wards, if they possibly can.If ZEC
intends to somehow run a second round of special voting, with people voting away
from their own wards, that might cause unacceptable complications for the
general poll, disrupt counting of votes and delay the announcement of results
and lead to accusations of rigging.]
Hearing
set for Friday 26th July
The
Chief Justice has approved an urgent hearing of the application and it has been
set down for Friday 26th July before the full Constitutional Court [nine
judges].
Appeal
to Constitutional Right for all Zimbabweans over 18 to Vote
Opening
a Can of Worms
1.The vote is being denied to an estimated four
million Zimbabweans in the Diaspora in spite of the African Commission on Human
and Peoples Rights earlier this year issuing a binding order instructing the
Government of Zimbabwe to ensure that voters in the Diaspora could exercise
their right to vote in the same way as Government officials stationed overseas,
i.e., by postal voting.ZEC simply said
it can’t be done and the Government has ignored the fact that the order is
binding on Zimbabwe as a member of the AU.An attempt by the Diaspora to get the Constitutional Court to order
enforcement of their right to vote, as endorsed by the African Commission, was
dismissed.No reasons were
given.
2.
All prisoners under the new Constitution are entitled to vote.Surely it would not have been a huge
logistical problem to take mobile voting vans to prisons?
3.Staff working in hospitals and their patients
should have been enabled to vote.
4.Other groups of essential service workers
–National Railways staff, ambulance staff, pilots,etc – should have been included in an
entitlement to a postal vote.
There
is a huge question not just of law but of legitimacy hanging over these
elections.If the argument of a
constitutional right to vote is used for one group of people for whom ZEC failed
to provide adequately, while other groups have been completely denied, by both
ZEC and the Constitutional Court, it may result in a spate of new law cases over
the elections.
Another
Challenge to Special Voting from Journalists
On
22nd July, two Herald journalists and the Zimbabwe Union of Journalists [ZUJ]
filed an application at the Constitutional Court seeking a declaration that the
Electoral Act’s special voting provisions discriminatory and therefore
inconsistent with the new Constitution; and an order directing ZEC to them and
all ZUJ members to cast their own “special votes” on 30th July, the day before
voters in general go to the polls.They
claim that journalists’ commitments will take them away from their
constituencies on 31st July.This case
will also be heard on 26th July.
Veritas
makes every effort to ensure reliable information, but cannot take legal
responsibility for information supplied
MyZimVote, as a
citizen of the 21st century, saw an opportunity to use technology for
Zimbabweans to check the status of their voter registration online. Conveniently
the Registrar General has refused to do so. In two short weeks the site was
visited more than 1,500,000 times.
MyZimVote
We have heard your
concerns and calls for free & fair elections. We have read every one
of your emails, over 3000 now.
Some statistics.
• There are over
42,000 people over the age of 100 listed. Does Zimbabwe have the fountain of
youth?
• Millions of people
have magically changed address and consistencies. You know you must vote in the
constituency you are registered in.
• There are well over
1,000,000 people on the roll who are either deceased or departed. Trying to use
someone else name to cast a vote?
• 78 constituencies
have more registered voters than inhabitants. How can that be?
• Despise the voters'
roll consisting of nearly 6 millions people only 45,000 youth were found in the
roll versus yet over 500,000 youths are listed on the latest census. Don't want
the youth to vote?
On the 31st July we
have the chance to show Zimbabweans will no longer be cheated of their
democratic right to vote. Let's make sure every vote is
counted!
About MyZimVote
MyZimVote is a free
and fair organization, not affiliated with the government of Zimbabwe, dedicated
to providing clear, simple and accurate voter registration information based on
the new constitution, adopted on 22 May 2013. Please refer to the Zimbabwe
Electorial Commission (ZEC) or the Registrar General's Office for more
information on the constitutional provisions.
As citizens of the
21st century, MyZimVote saw an opportunity to use technology to help
Zimbabwean's accomplish one task: checking the status of their voter
registration.
Since creation,
MyZimVote has received thousands of emails from concerned Zimbabweans, concerned
the 2013 Election will be stolen, as in years past.
Morgan Tsvangirai
Welshman Ncube
Dumiso Dabengwa
Kisinoti Mukwazhe
