Yahoo News
By Stella
Mapenzauswa 21 minutes ago
HARARE (Reuters) - Zimbabwe's ruling party
edged ahead of the main
opposition on Tuesday with over half of
parliamentary election results
released and concerns grew that President
Robert Mugabe was trying to rig
the vote.
Riot police in armored
carriers patrolled two of Harare's opposition
strongholds overnight and
residents were told to stay off the normally
bustling streets.
Three
days after the most important vote since independence, only 109 out of
210
parliamentary constituencies had been declared, showing the ruling
ZANU-PF
two seats ahead of the main opposition Movement for Democratic
Change
(MDC).
No results have been announced for the presidential vote, in which
Mugabe
faces the most formidable political challenge of his 28 years in
power --
from old rival Morgan Tsvangirai and ruling party defector Simba
Makoni.
The opposition MDC says it won according to its own tally and has
accused
the veteran leader of delaying the issuing of the results in a bid
to steal
the election, which Zimbabweans hoped would ease daily
hardships.
Zimbabweans are suffering the world's highest inflation of
more than 100,000
percent, food and fuel shortages, and an HIV/AIDS epidemic
that has
contributed to a steep decline in life expectancy. Mugabe's foes
blame him
for the economic disaster.
"It is now clear that there is
something fishy. The whole thing is
suspicious and totally unacceptable,"
MDC spokesman Nelson Chamisa said.
Mugabe has denied rigging the election
and his government warned that any
early victory claim would be regarded as
an attempted coup.
INTERNATIONAL PRESSURE
An independent
Zimbabwean election monitoring group forecast Tsvangirai,
leader of the
largest faction of the MDC, would win the most votes in the
presidential
poll but not by a big enough margin to avoid a second round.
The Zimbabwe
Election Support Network (ZESN) said its projections gave him
49.4 percent.
It predicted Mugabe would win 41.8 percent and Makoni would
get 8.2
percent.
Tsvangirai was due to hold a news conference at 4:00 a.m. EDT,
his first
since voting ended.
Seven European countries and the United
States called on Zimbabwe's
Electoral Commission to quickly release the
results.
Slovenia, which holds the EU Presidency, also called for a
speedy release of
the results.
"This would end the current
uncertainty and prevent the risk of rising
tensions," the EU presidency said
in a statement.
Electoral Commission chairman George Chiweshe said the
slow pace was due to
the complexity of holding presidential, parliamentary
and local polls
together for the first time.
Although the odds seemed
stacked against Mugabe, in power since independence
in 1980, analysts
believe his iron grip on the country and solid backing
from the armed forces
could enable him to ignore the results and declare
victory.
Marwick
Khumalo, head of an observer group from the Pan-African parliament,
said the
elections themselves were free, fair and credible overall and on
Tuesday the
African, Caribbean and Pacific (ACP) observer team also endorsed
the
polls.
"The ACP Election observer mission was particularly impressed by
the calm
and peaceful atmosphere that prevailed before, during and
immediately after
polling day," the state-owned Herald newspaper quoted the
ACP as saying.
Official results so far showed ZANU-PF with 53 seats, MDC
with 51 and a
breakaway MDC faction with five. Five of the new seats the MDC
won were from
traditional ZANU-PF strongholds.
The MDC said
unofficial tallies showed Tsvangirai had 60 percent of the
presidential
vote, twice the total for Mugabe. Private polling organizations
also put
Tsvangirai ahead.
"In our view, as we stated before, we cannot see the
national trend
changing. This means the people have spoken, they've spoken
against the
dictatorship," MDC Secretary-General Tendai Biti
said.
Business Day
(Johannesburg)
1 April 2008
Posted to the web 1 April
2008
Dumisani Muleya
Harare
TENSION mounted in Zimbabwe
yesterday as it emerged that President Robert
Mugabe had arbitrarily blocked
the result of the weekend’s cliff-hanger
presidential election to manipulate
it in his favour.
By late yesterday no official presidential vote results
were available,
prompting the US, the UK and the European Union to call for
the state-run
Zimbabwe Electoral Commission (ZEC) to act
swiftly.
Last night, Congress of South African Trade Unions (Cosatu)
general
secretary Zwelinzima Vavi said the federation was “extremely
concerned” over
the slow counting of votes. “This snail pace just deepens
all manner of
suspicions,” he said in Johannesburg.
Almost 48 hours
after polls closed, only 67 of 210 parliamentary
constituencies had been
declared, showing Mugabe’s Zanu (PF) party one seat
ahead of the main
opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC).
The withholding of the
result has caused a tense situation in a country
already reeling from a deep
economic crisis, and heightened fears of
instability in the
region.
On Sunday, Mugabe met the Joint Operations Command (JOC), which
comprises
army, police and intelligence chiefs, for an emergency meeting to
discuss
security. This was prompted by the growing fears that if Mugabe had
managed
to rig the elections — as opposition groups have claimed —
antigovernment
street protests could spontaneously erupt.
Security
sources said Mugabe and the JOC decided to withhold the
presidential
election results and release the outcomes of the parliamentary,
senate and
local council polls in small batches to manage the volatile
situation and
prepare the nation for a Mugabe victory.
The idea is also to contain the
situation because Mugabe and his Zanu (PF)
have lost the polls by wide
margins, sources said.
Sources in the ZEC, which is staffed by
pro-government officials, said
Mugabe had thwarted the release of the
presidential election result to
enable his regime to doctor the
outcome.
A secret task force of security and electoral personnel was in
place before
the vote to ensure Mugabe and the divided Zanu (PF) won an
absolute
majority.
The team, headed by Central Intelligence
Organisation operatives tasked to
ensure Mugabe “wins power, stays in power,
and keeps power”, would heavily
influence the already flawed electoral
process to secure a Mugabe victory,
well substantiated information to hand
shows.
Yesterday, riot police patrolled the streets of cities while the
army was on
high alert.
Mugabe has said he would crush any protests
by the opposition. “Let them try
and they will see,” he said in closing his
campaign on Friday last week.
Political scientist John Makumbe said
Mugabe was likely to rig the polls,
creating serious clashes between the
security forces and the opposition.
“I know for sure Mugabe will rig.
There is too much evidence to support
this,” he said. “We might end up with
a Kenyan-like situation here, but it
doesn’t have to be like that. However,
if Mugabe rigs there will be fierce
resistance this time.”
The main
opposition MDC, led by Morgan Tsvangirai, said Zanu (PF) had lost
and was
trying to doctor the results.
Official results announced by the ZEC
showed Zanu (PF) had 26 seats,
Tsvangirai’s MDC faction had 25 seats and the
MDC camp led by Arthur
Mutambara had one seat.
There are 210 seats in
the House of Assembly and 60 elective seats in the
Senate. Two cabinet
ministers, Justice Minister Patrick Chinamasa and
Interactive Affairs
Minister Chen Chimutengwende, lost their seats.
The MDC yesterday
released its unofficial results, which showed it had won
96 constituencies
out of 128 counted.
“In our view we cannot see the national trend
changing. This means the
people have spoken, they’ve spoken against the
dictatorship," said MDC
secretary-general Tendai Biti.
SABC
April 01, 2008,
07:30
Zimbabwe's Deputy Information Minister Bright Matonga has scoffed
at reports
that President Robert Mugabe has left the country for Malaysia
ahead of the
release of the country's presidential election
results.
A presidential election was held in Zimbabwe on March 29, 2008,
along with a
parliamentary election on the same day.
Reports say
Mugabe who heads the ruling Zimbabwe African National Union -
Patriotic
Front (Zanu-PF) has not been seen in the country since he cast his
vote on
Saturday but Matonga insists the reports are false.
Zimbabwe is making
headlines around the world as the country, once the gem
in continent’s post
colonial crown now struggles with unprecedented rates of
unemployment and
inflation. The elections are expected, because of
Zimbabwe's dire economic
situation, to provide President Mugabe with his
toughest electoral challenge
to date.
Zanu-PF leads by 1 seat
The opposition Movement for
Democratic Change as well as Mugabe's ruling
Zanu-PF is still battling to
gain a significant vote advantage as results
are continuing to trickle in
from the weekend's general elections.
With 89 of the 210 parliamentary
seats so far declared, the Zanu-PF is two
seats ahead of the MDC. The
figures released by the Zimbabwe Electoral
Commission give Zanu-PF 43 seats,
followed by the MDC with 41. The breakaway
MDC faction has five
parliamentary seats.
Meanwhile, the Crisis in Zimbabwe Coalition says
it's concerned that some
election observers in Zimbabwe have already begun
leaving the country.
Earlier, the US, Britain and the European Union called
on the United Nations
to persuade Zimbabwean authorities to release the
results of last Saturday's
election swiftly.
In the latest results,
Morgan Tsvangirai's MDC faction has so far secured 30
House of Assembly
seats while six have gone to the formation led by Arthur
Mutambara. This
gives the ruling Zanu-PF a slight lead of just one seat over
Tsvangirai's
faction so far. The Zimbabwe Electoral Commission has not yet
announced the
results outcome of the hotly-contested presidential race.
IOL
April
01 2008 at 09:05AM
By Moshoeshoe Monare
The opposition
is claiming an imminent win, but President Robert
Mugabe is preparing his
victory speech.
This is according to Zanu-PF spokesperson and
politburo member Nathan
Shamuyarira.
In an interview with
Independent Newspapers on Monday, Shamuyarira
said he was in touch with
Mugabe, who he said was in high spirits.
This is amid speculation
that Mugabe was seriously worried about the
election outcomes, with wild
rumours suggesting that he was preparing to
flee the country in the event of
a defeat.
Independent Newspapers reliably learned that Mugabe was
kept informed
about the results while the nation was in the dark, fuelling
charges of an
uncomfortable relationship between the president and the
Zimbabwe Electoral
Commission (ZEC).
Shamuyarira said Mugabe was optimistic about serving a sixth term.
"I am in touch with him and he is in top form. He knows and we know he
is
going to win. Let's wait for the results, but we are sure we are going to
win."
Shamuyarira refused to say if this would be the
84-year-old leader's
last term if he wins.
"I don't know, you
will have to ask him that question."
Asked why the president has
not been seen in public since he cast his
vote on Saturday in his home
township of Highfields, outside Harare,
Shamuyarira said Mugabe would meet
the Zimbabwean people at the right time.
"He will speak to the
people once the results are announced.
"Let's not interfere with
the process, and let's wait until there is a
decision. But he will
definitely speak to the people," Shamuyarira said.
While Mugabe was
in hibernation, Movement for Democratic Change (MDC)
leader Morgan
Tsvangirai was also nowhere to be found after security
concerns following a
police raid on MDC officials' hotel rooms.
On Monday MDC
secretary-general Tendai Biti said: "Tsvangirai is
alive. We can't tell you
where he is. He is ready to address a Press
conference. We can't tell you
the time and venue."
Earlier in the day, Biti told a press
conference that Tsvangirai was
winning the elections, flaunting unofficial
collated results that showed
that Tsvangirai was leading by 58 percent,
while Mugabe was trailing at 37
percent.
Independent
presidential candidate Simba Makoni is projected at five
percent.
Biti said a worst-case scenario could be a run-off
between Mugabe and
Tsvangirai in the presidential elections while the
contest seems tough in
the senate, national assembly and council
elections.
However, the official results for the national assembly
trickling
every three hours from the ZEC showed a neck-and-neck performance
between
MDC and Zanu-PF at the time going to Press.
But Biti
said information sourced from their party agents in polling
stations showed
that Mugabe was losing the race.
So far, senior Zanu-PF and cabinet
members have lost in their
constituencies.
Home Affairs
Minister Kembo Mohadi and Justice Minister Patrick
Chinamasa lost their
seats to the MDC, according to Biti.
However, vice-president Joyce
Mujuru, who many believe secretly
supports Makoni, won her seat in Mount
Darwin.
Shamuyarira dismissed the opposition's victory as
premature.
"It is not over yet, we can't celebrate while votes are
still being
counted," he said.
However, only a few supporters
surrounded Zanu-PF's headquarters, in a
towering building in the western
part of Harare.
Besides a few staff workers and security guards,
there were no
activities pointing to a ruling party victory.
Meanwhile, Shamuyarira said it would take a few years before the
economy was
back on its feet.
He expressed optimism for the country, which is
facing hyperinflation,
food shortage, low salaries and unemployment, low
life expectancy and
general discontent.
He refused to admit
that people were fleeing the country as a result
of the meltdown under
Zanu-PF rule.
"Zimbabweans and people in the region have been going
to South Africa
for years as a result of your country's strong economy. It
is not new. It
happened long before you were born."
This article was originally published on page 1 of Pretoria News on
April
01, 2008
The Zimbabwean
Tuesday, 01 April 2008 06:01
What a dramatic two days this has been.
With voting over in
the allotted 12
hours, counting has taken another 72 hours and in some cases
the Zimbabwe
Electoral Commission is still verifying the vote results. In a
dramatic
development the political masters in Zanu PF tried to force ZEC to
declare
Mugabe the winner with 53 per cent of the vote and a Zanu PF majority
of 115
seats.
This information was sent to us by elements in Zanu PF and
we made the plan
public at a press conference at 10.00 hrs today. But once
again the ZEC has
come up trumps - they refused to gerrymander the results
and are slowly
releasing the final results to the public. This appears to be
an effort to
give the Zanu PF people a chance to "clean house" in advance of
what will be
a fairly rapid transfer of power once the final figures for the
Presidential
election are announced.
It would seem that the last
minute desperate measures to frustrate a MDC
victory was made late yesterday
and last night but has faded by this
morning. The best indication of that is
that the heavy police presence
evident last night has faded and there are no
police or army units on the
street today.
So at last it looks as if
the ZEC will eventually announce that Morgan
Tsvangirai has won this election
- I personally expect the final ZEC tally
to be 58 per cent for Morgan
Tsvangirai, 27 per cent for Mugabe and 15 per
cent for Simba Makoni. I also
expect that the final tally in terms of the
Parliamentary seats will be 115
for MDC, 12 for the Mutambara group, 8
independents and 75 for Zanu PF. It is
clear that many of the Zanu PF seats
were in fact rigged in their favor but
ZEC is accepting this as it was what
I call "micro rigging" - in the sense
that they manipulated the numbers of
people voting.
There were many
ways in which they could do this - threats against the
population - "vote
Zanu PF or else", multiple voting in remote areas where
there was
insufficient supervision, the postal ballot and moving people into
key
constituencies. We will have to look at all of these and decide which we
will
take to court once the dust has settled.
But there can be no doubt this
was a huge upset. Zanu seems to have been
dislodged by a variety of factors.
They gerrymandered the electoral
districts giving the rural vote (their
traditional source of power) a 2 to 1
advantage over the urban voter. Then
they gerrymandered the voter's roll and
the distribution of polling stations.
These measures were overcome by two
essential elements - a very high turn out
of the voters in urban areas (30
per cent of the voters roll but probably 65
per cent of the actual number of
registered voters that are still here) and a
very low turn out in rural
districts (15 per cent or less). They also
underestimated the Makoni factor
and he did much better than
expected.
This was a referendum on Mugabe's leadership and even with all
the rigging
and gerrymandering, he is now just so unpopular that he could not
be
rescued. I doubt if he got 10 per cent of the vote, nationwide. What
we
have witnessed in the last 24 hours are the last kicks of a dying dynasty.
I
wonder what is going on right now behind those closed doors!
Eddie
Cross
zimbabwejournalists.com
1st Apr 2008 07:58 GMT
By Communities
Point
COMMUNITIES POINT STATEMENT 31 MARCH 2008
The
Communities Point International, an international organization whose
major
remit is community integration, wishes to challenge the consciences of
Zimbabweans during this post-election period to remain conscious of the
responsibilities that they have to maintain peace and ensure the return of
tranquility, integrity and dignity to their once prosperous
nation.
The run-up to the election and the conduct on polling day is
enough
indication that Zimbabwe and Zimbabweans can do better than what the
country
has now been associated with. Yet Zimbabwe can redeem itself by
finishing
the process with the announcement of the results of the elections
in a way
that will not be contested by any of the political parties that
contested.
The delay in announcing elections by the Zimbabwe Electorate
Commission is
an unfortunate development and a dent onto the opportunity to
return
Zimbabwe to international legitimacy. Instead of being sensitive to
the
political realities in Zimbabwe ZEC seems to encourage this by
unnecessarily
holding onto results which has created unnecessary
anxiety.
Whilst we are aware that the task of reconciling ballots from 4
elections is
a very unenviable task, we nevertheless challenge ZEC that as
the final
auditors of the election process they must not only be fair but
they have to
be seen to be fair, just and transparent.
In the same
light we would like to challenge all candidates particularly the
losing
candidates to admit that they have lost. Our thoughts go particularly
to the
Presidential Candidates and the challenges that are particular to the
current President Robert Mugabe who we understand is having serious family
problems at this crucial time. Whilst we join him in his sorrow we also
challenge him not to use the advantages of incumbency in the event of losing
the elections and that he honours his promise that he will accept the
verdict even if he loses.
Further we would like to tell him that he
can still show his statesmanship
in the event of losing and accepting
defeat. An acceptance of defeat will
mean that President Robert Mugabe joins
a very unique club of African
leaders; those that accepted defeat and in
this club there is only Dr
Kenneth Kaunda and FW de Klerk, former Presidents
of Zambia and South Africa
respectively. At the same time we challenge the
opposition to accept defeat
in the event that this process has been accepted
as free and fair by all the
observers. Zimbabwe needs leaders in both
government and opposition who will
put the nation above personal glory and
it is Communities Point
International’s belief that it is not too late for
all leaders across the
Party divide to start showing this now.
Many
Thanks
JOINT STATEMENT FROM:
TENDAI TERRANCE MUTYAMBIZI-DEWA
[SECRETARY COMMUNITIES POINT INTERNATIONAL]
BRIGHT MAWOKO [CHAIRMAN
COMMUNITIES POINT INTERNATIONAL]
JULIUS MUTYAMBIZI-DEWA [DIRECTOR OF
COMPLIANCE COMMUNITIES POINT
INTERNATIONAL]
Kuwait News Agency
Politics 4/1/2008 9:09:00
AM
PARIS, April 1 (KUNA) -- Seven European Union
Foreign Ministers,
including the Slovenian Presidency, met late Monday in
Paris to discuss the
situation in Zimbabwe following the elections held
there on March 29.
The ministers, from France, Britain, Italy,
Holland, Slovakia,
Spain and the Slovene rotating presidency of the EU,
commended the turnout
in the Zimbabwean vote that could end the decades-old
monopoly on power of
controversial president, Robert Mugabe, who is in his
early eighties but
reluctant to cede power.
Mugabe, who has
openly clashed with Zimbabwes old colonial
power, Britain, is blamed for
destroying the economy and bringing his nation
to the brink of ruin. Mugabe
counters that he is being victimized by Britain
and its
friends.
"We commend the Zimbabweans who turned out to vote
despite the
difficult circumstances," a joint statement said after the
talks.
"We call on the Zimbabwean Electoral Commission to swiftly
announce all official election results, especially the results of the
presidential election, " the statement added, reflecting growing
dissatisfaction with the slowness to publish results amid accusations by the
opposition that fraud is taking place. The Ministers said that they had
addressed "the particular concern" over the situation in
Zimbabwe.
"The future of the Zimbabwean people depends on the
credibility
and the transparency of the electoral process. We note with
interest and
admiration the reports from Zimbabwean civil society groups of
specific
results from polling stations around the country," the statement
issued here
remarked.
"We look forward to working with
democratically elected
Zimbabwean authorities, who will be expected to
improve Human rights and the
rule of law for the good of the Zimbabwean
people, the Ministers concluded.
(end) jk.rk KUNA 010909 Apr
08NNNN
The Zimbabwean
Tuesday, 01 April 2008 05:56
International development agencies, Progressio, Tearfund,
Trócaire and FEPA
today call for immediate action to stop what appears to
impartial observers
as government-led election rigging of Zimbabwe’s March
29th polls.
All four agencies are concerned about the slow release of
election results,
which as Noel Kututwa, Chairperson of the Zimbabwe
Election Support Network
says “is fuelling speculation that there could be
something going on”.
Marwick Khumalo, head of the Pan-African Parliamentary
Observer Mission, has
also expressed concern over the delay.
Our
mutual partner, Pastor Promise of the Zimbabwe Christian Alliance said:
“SADC principles and guidelines governing democratic elections stipulate
that counting of votes shall be done at the polling stations. This was done
and completed yet ZEC is withholding the results which are already public
knowledge as they were posted outside each polling station. With Kenya’s
violence so fresh in our minds, it is not acceptable to delay the timely
announcement of results as if to provoke the already highly charged
electorate. It’s extremely urgent that ZEC announces all the results
immediately.”
Specifically, the agencies are concerned
that:
· In some cases, officially announced votes do not appear to
be
tallying with those registered and displayed at polling
stations;
· It has taken over 30 hours to collate and begin to
announce
election results, which were posted up outside polling stations two
days
ago;
· The pace of announcement has been painfully slow.
By 3pm on Monday
31st March the Electoral Commission had announced
parliamentary poll results
for only 30 out of 210 constituencies. Results
for senatorial and
presidential polls are also still
pending;
· The delay in announcing results and the failure of the
Electoral
Commission to satisfactorily explain the delays to the general
public is
contributing to tensions and could lead to a situation of
instability in the
country;
· The Southern African
Development Community (SADC) has already
issued its statement on the
elections. According to article 6.1.12 of the
SADC guidelines, observers
monitoring elections are obliged to issue a
statement on 'conduct AND
outcome'. The SADC observer mission only issued a
statement on conduct of
elections yesterday afternoon and has now declared
its work
finished.
In light of these serious concerns, we urge governments to
take the
following critical actions:
· African and especially
southern African leaders should ensure that
the SADC observer mission
fulfils its obligations to the people of Zimbabwe
by following through on
assessing the counting process and declared outcome
of the
polls;
· There should be an SADC investigation and response to the
allegations of fraud made by independent outside and domestic analysts and
observers, in particular with respect to why the announcement of results was
delayed when polling stations results were already reported;
·
African Union and national leaders should be prepared to lead a
process of
mediation in the event of a disputed outcome;
· The UK, Ireland, EU
and member states should encourage African
leaders to insist that the SADC
principles are rigorously followed, in
particular on ensuring that the
results announced reflect the will of the
people;
· Security
forces in Zimbabwe are also urged to respect the verdict
of the
people.
Progressio is an international development agency working for
sustainable
development and the eradication of poverty. www.progressio.org.uk
Tearfund is
a Christian relief and development agency working with a global
network of
local churches to help eradicate poverty. www.tearfund.org
Trócaire is an Irish
charity & development agency working for a just world.
www.trocaire.org
FEPA is the
Foundation for Development and Partnership in Africa. It is
based in
Switzerland and has worked in Zimbabwe for many years.
EUobserver
01.04.2008 - 09:22 CET | By Leigh Phillips
European politicians
have called on the Zimbabwean Electoral Commission to
"swiftly" announce
election results, after unusual delays in their release.
Foreign
ministers from seven EU member states issued a statement late Monday
(31
March) evening saying: "We call on the Zimbabwean Electoral Commission
to
swiftly announce all official election results, especially the results of
the presidential election."
The ministers - from France, Italy,
the Netherlands, Slovakia, Slovenia,
Spain and Britain - were in Paris for
an informal meeting where the
Zimbabwean elections were
discussed.
They added: "The future of the Zimbabwean people depends on
the credibility
and the transparency of the electoral process. We note with
interest and
admiration the reports from Zimbabwean civil society groups of
specific
results from polling stations around the country.
"We look
forward to working with democratically elected Zimbabwean
authorities, who
will be expected to improve human rights and the rule of
law for the good of
the Zimbabwean people."
Three days after polls closed for both
parliamentary and presidential
elections, the country's electoral
authorities have only drip-fed results,
and only from the parliament.
Normally, election results in Zimbabwe are
released within hours of the
closure of polling stations.
Slovenia, which currently holds the rotating
EU presidency, also issued a
statement calling on the electoral authorities
to release the results
promptly.
"The presidency calls on the
Zimbabwe Electoral Commission to announce the
official results as soon as
possible to demonstrate its independence and to
avoid unnecessary
speculation," read a press release from the Slovenian
presidency.
"This would end the current uncertainty and prevent the
risk of rising
tensions."
The European Commission's aid spokesperson,
John Clancy, said: "The Zimbabwe
Electoral Commission should publish the
final results as soon as possible to
demonstrate its independence and to
avoid unnecessary speculation."
Independent election observers from other
African nations have said that
according to results from two thirds of
polling stations, opposition leader
Morgan Tsvangirai has won 55 percent of
the vote, against President Robert
Mugabe's 36 percent.
Mr
Tsvangirai's Movement for Democratic Change is claiming support of 67
percent.
The Southern African Development Community, the regional
intergovernmental
economic and political cooperation grouping, said it is
concerned that the
delay suggests that results are being falsified.