The Zimbabwe 2013 Election Rigging Report: Part 3

via The Zimbabwe 2013 Election Rigging Report: Part 3 — Nehanda Radio  NOVEMBER 8, 2013 

This is Part 3 of a dossier compiled by the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) which claims that President Robert Mugabe’s trusted Joint Operations Command (JOC) made up of army, police and state security chiefs took control of the July 31 elections reducing the electoral commission to by-standers.

REGISTRAR GENERAL’S ROLE

The Registrar General TobaiwaMudede was instructed and obliged to a plan that resulted in the processes of voter registration and preparation of the voters’ roll being spearheaded and directed by Nikuv Projects, leading to the deliberate disenfranchisement of close to a million voters as well as creation of many ghost voters for the rigging mission.

Thorough investigations carried out at the RG’s department revealed the following;

• The Registrar General was instructed to cooperate with experts from Nikuv in manipulating and corrupting processes of issuance of national IDs and voter registration to disenfranchise close to 950 000 voters in urban areas, known to be MDC strongholds. Harare alone had 350 000 people that were disenfranchised.

• The strategies used included deliberate delay and slowing down of the voter registration processes as well as other deliberate measures to prevent voters in urban areas from registering to vote, such as demands for proof of residence, marriage certificates and employers’ letters.

• The Registrar General also carried out an instruction from the rigging command to dilute urban constituencies and achieved that through issuing documents to hordes of Zanu PF members and supporters that enabled them to register and vote in constituencies they did not reside, most of them having come from rural and farming communities.

• About 250 000 people were brought to dilute the Harare constituencies through the Registrar General’s strategies.

• Similar strategies of issuing fake IDs and other registration documents resulted in more than 1,5 million names appearing on the voters’ roll across the country, which were either fake, or belonged to deceased persons as well as others staying outside the country permanently and not available to vote.

• The processes of voter registration and preparation of the voters’ roll at the RG’s Department were carried out under a veil of secrecy and directed by Nikuv experts, away from the glare of the public and also sealed off from any monitoring or assessment by ZEC or other stakeholders such as political parties.

• The team that prepared the voters’ roll was moved from the RG’s Department to operate from the KGV1 army headquarters on July 15, after the MDC had raised concerns about the lack of transparency in the process and there was a lot of media coverage of the rigging plan.

• The Registrar General was given orders by the rigging command to hold onto the voters’ roll and prevent any individual or organisation from accessing it until a few days before the voting started. Mudede obliged with that instruction and made sure that repeated requests by political parties and even ZEC for copies of the voters’ roll yielded nothing until two days before the voting day.

• After completing the voters’ roll with nine days before the day of voting, Mudede surrendered both the hard copy and electronic version to the military and intelligence management committee and to the Zanu PF rigging machinery command.

• The Registrar General only submitted hard copies of the voters’ roll to ZEC on July 29, two days before voting commenced but carried out an instruction from the military and intelligence not to issue out an electronic copy of the voters’ roll.

• The hard copy version of the voters’ roll which Mudede handed to ZEC less than 48 hours before voting commenced was not a consolidated national register of voters as required by the law, but was made of various and different versions of provincial or even constituency rolls of voters. The various versions were dominated by deliberate repetition of hundreds of thousands of ghost voters, used to justify the strategies of multiple voting and ballot stuffing.

NIKUV PROJECTS

The Zanu PF regime assigned the Israeli firm to spearhead, control and direct the rigging mission through working with the Registrar General on the processes of voter registration and preparation of the voters’ roll.

Mugabe’s trusted election rigger: Registra General Tobaiwa Mudede (in glasses)

Nikuv Projects were granted a contract to help rig the 2013 elections by Mugabe himself in June 2012 on the strength of previous work that the Israeli firm had carried out for the Zanu PF regime since elections in 2002.

CEO for the Israeli firm, Emmanuel Antebi visited Mugabe in June 2012 as a culmination of meetings and engagements with EmmersonMnangagwa and other senior Zanu PF officials in the rigging high command.

The contract for rigging the 2013 elections was worth US$13 million, which the Zanu PF regime paid in staggered instalments and batches, starting from November 2012.

Annexure A of this report provides details of electronic transfers that were done by the Zanu PF system, secretly through the Registrar General’s Office, with a total of US$10,5 million paid between February and July 2013.

All this money was paid without the consent and knowledge of the Ministry of Finance as required by procedure. Information obtained from the banking system and the RG’s office, shows that these payments were accompanied by invoices and receipts exchanged between the RG Department and Nikuv Projects’ office in Harare.

Confidential information from the Zanu PF system reveals that another US$2,5 million was paid to Nikuv Projects directly from Mugabe himself after the July 31 elections.

The specific tasks of Nikuv Projects were executed as follows; 

• It provided technical expertise and guidance to intelligence and Zanu PF for a reconnaissance and assessment programme that was carried out at the end of 2012 and concluded in January 2013 to establish the political situation in Zimbabwe, possible voting patterns and the general mood of the electorate.

• The information obtained from the reconnaissance and assessment mission was used by Nikuv, Zanu PF and the intelligence to come up with the framework for the rigging mission, on the basis of determination made from possible voting patterns and forecast electoral outcomes, which showed that the MDC would win local governance, parliamentary and presidential elections.

• Nikuv experts formulated strategies that would avoid defeat and rig the election for a Zanu PF victory, through disenfranchising voters, diluting MDC strongholds, creating ghost voters and facilitating for multiple voting as well as ballot stuffing.

• Three experts from Nikuv arrived in Zimbabwe in November 2012 and were assigned to start preparing for the rigging mission with initial strategies that included issuance of fake IDs, identifying names of dead people and those in the diaspora for inclusion in the voters’ roll.

• The Nikuv team was empowered to take the lead in the processes of voter registration, issuance of national registration and also some technical demographic research and assessment carried out across the country for the purpose of obtaining information that was eventually used in manipulation of the voters’ roll.

• The voters’ roll was doctored and manipulated on the basis of a framework and guidelines that were drawn by Nikuv experts upon the rigging machinery’s objectives and targets for each province and even in some selected cases, for specific constituencies, which Zanu PF identified to wrestle from the MDC through fraudulent means.

• Nikuv’s experts prepared a shambolic voters’ roll working in collaboration with the Registrar General’s and created copies of various versions to achieve the rigging mission at provincial level and also constituency level in some cases.

• Nikuv experts also employed technical number crunching and sorting methods to doctor and fi the voters’ roll for the rigging mission.

 CHINESE COMMUNIST PARTY

The rigging machinery was also beefed up by experts from China that contributed in the formulation and implementation of strategies as well as brought special materials used in the electoral fraud.

The Chinese Communist Party arranged and facilitated the deployment of agents and experts from China involved in the areas of election manipulation and rigging that were assigned to the Zanu PF rigging machinery.

Before the deployment of the Chinese experts, teams from Zanu PF, led by Mnangagwa, had visited China and were hosted by the Communist Party for meetings and engagements through which they obtained input towards formulation of the rigging strategies.

Jing Huwao was deployed from China to Harare in June 2013 to join the military and intelligence rigging management committee and played a major role until the elections were held and the results were released.

The Chinese experts brought a special water marked ballot paper from China, which was used in Zimbabwe’s four selected provinces to fraudulently swing the vote in favour of Zanu PF candidates at all levels of the harmonised elections.

Technical expertise was also provided by the Chinese towards formulation and implementation of some of the rigging strategies, such as ballot stuffing and facilitation of multiple voting.

The Chinese were the major driving force behind the youth militia’s programmes in the constituencies, aimed at frustrating MDC campaigns through covert forms of intimidation and violence, including infiltration of the election conduct system by the youth militia.

The Chinese Communist Party shipped thousands of tonnes of cheap second hand household utensils, clothes and electrical gadgets that were used by Zanu PF for vote buying. In return, the Chinese were offered farms and mining concessions by the Zanu PF regime.

 YOUTH MILITIA

A total of 35 000 youths were drawn from Zanu PF structures and also products of the infamous national youth training centres for special roles in the rigging of elections.

Zanu PF Youth Militia infamously known as the Green Bombers

Army bases in Harare, Gweru and Bulawayo were used for the initial enrolment and training of youths before some of them were despatched to bases in other provinces.

Confidential information shows the following breakdowns in numbers of youths that were trained; 

Manyame Air Base (Harare) – 9 500

Inkomo Barracks (Harare) – 7 343

Thornhill Air Base (Gweru) – 5 000

Brady Barracks (Bulawayo) – 8 700

Llewellin Barracks (Bulawayo) – 6 000

The youths were taken through training by Chinese and Nikuv experts before they were later deployed to execute the following objectives; 

• To populate and depopulate provinces with the help of traditional leaders, military and intelligence officials.

• Ban and disrupt campaigns by the MDC.

• Intimidate the electorate and threaten them with violence.

• Jam short-wave radio signals.

• Facilitate the movement of Zanu PF supporters from rural and farming communities into urban areas to register and then vote.

• Organise fake and fly-by-night housing cooperatives which were used for vote buying in urban and peri-urban areas, also through which thousands of people were fleeced money channelled for Zanu PF campaigning and rigging mission.

• Infiltrate populated market areas such as Mbare Musika in Harare and coerce all operators to prove affiliation to Zanu PF or risk victimisation. Thousands were forced to vote for Zanu PF after being told by the youth militia that they would trace and identify them if they voted for the MDC.

• Other groups of the youth militia stayed at the army bases and carried out the task of marking ballot papers that were used for stuffing purposes.

• Confidential information obtained from the rigging machinery shows that 3 million ballot papers for local governance, parliamentary and presidential voting were smuggled into army bases and marked by the youth militia.

• The youth militia were used to carry out ballot stuffing, working in link with military and intelligence officers that were planted along the election management network, from national level, all the way to polling station.

 FUNDERS OF THE RIGGING MISSION

A total budget of US$100 million was used by the Zanu PF rigging machinery, mainly towards payment of agents, organisations and the tens of thousands of militia and security personnel that performed various roles in the plan.

The Zanu PF regime obtained funding from organisations and corporations that have either benefited from its patronage system in key sectors such as the mining industry and others that were threatened with victimisation or sabotage.

Anjin Pvt (LTD) & Mbada Diamonds 

Companies involved in the mining of Chiadzwa diamonds, Anjin and MbadaDiamonds were ordered to contribute towards the election rigging budget and both provided US$10 million each.

Meikles Africa Group

The Meikles Africa Group, owned by John Moxon, was threatened with take-over and other forms of sabotage by Zanu PF and made a compromise by donating US$2 million towards the election rigging budget.

Zimbabwe Defence Industries

Zanu PF also obtained an amount of US$3 millionfrom the Zimbabwe Defence Industries, which is engaged in illicit arms deals and making huge profits as a conduit for arms from China and Israel into the African region.

Sino Zimbabwe

Zanu PF’s Chinese allies, including the Chinese Communist Party, channelled a total amount of US$5 through Sino Zimbabwe, an organisation that brings together business interests of the two countries and is involved in diversified operations in Zimbabwe.

EXTERNAL FUNDING

Mugabe also drew financial support towards the rigging mission from some of his long-time allies in Africa, including;

President Teodoro Obiang Nguema Mbasogo (Equatorial Guinea)

The Equatorial Guinea dictator, serving for the 34th year, paid back Mugabe for the latter’s role in foiling a coup that had been planned to ouster NguemaMbasogo in 2004 through a US$10 million funding towards the rigging mission.

NguemaMbasogo responded to a request by Mugabe to help fund the rigging mission, which the Equatorial Guinea dictator fully backed, himself having rigged elections repeatedly to stay in power.

President Joseph Kabila (DRC)

Another close ally of Mugabe, Kabila provided US$10 million towards the rigging mission of Zanu PF in his personal capacity.

Mugabe’s relations date back to Kabila’s late father, Desire Laurent and which the incumbent took over and sustained along the lines of Mugabe’s deployment of troops to help the DRC regime fight off rebels, clandestine diamond deals in the DRC and also supporting each other in regional politics.

DIAMOND DEALS

Another avenue through which the Zanu PF system raised huge amounts of money to fund the rigging mission was the illegal diamond deals that were fast-tracked and pushed through during the election period and information obtained confidentially revealed the following;

Angola deal 

A delegation of buyers from Angola purchased a consignment from Chiadzwa through the Zanu PF system, and paid US$10 million in cash at the beginning of July 2013.

Israel and China deals 

Buyers also came from Israel and China at the beginning of July, with four weeks before elections and paid U$40 million for a consignment of Chiadzwa diamonds that had been clandestinely obtained by Zanu PF through the Minister of Mines.