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Youth Agenda statement on elections
Youth Agenda Trust
August 01, 2013

Youth Agenda Trust would to express dismay and disappointment at the manner in which the electoral process has been conducted so far, which leaves us with no option but to conclude that this process is rigged and thus NULL and VOID.

YAT would like to particularly pick out the following issues as the basis for the position that we have taken:

1) Voter’s roll

The voters roll that was used in yesterday’s election was hugely flawed as we saw many people being turned away from the polling stations in their wards while some found that either their names were incorrectly spelt or the ID numbers were different. In the end, a large number of voters countrywide failed to exercise their constitutional right to vote. We therefore feel that the failure by the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission to furnish political parties and civil society with a copy of the voters roll was a deliberate attempt to mask the well orchestrated political fraud.

2) Voting process

We noted that there were unbelievably large numbers of people in marginalised communities such as the peri-urban, farming and mining communities who indicated that they could neither read nor write. We feel that these were intimidating tactics that were employed to force Zimbabweans into voting for candidates they did not like. In this regard, we conclude that the voting process was very violent as people were being emotionally tortured. What makes this even worse is that Zimbabwe has 95 percent literacy rate but we have over 60 percent of the voting population claiming to be illiterate.

3) Busing of voters

We also saw large numbers of people who were bussed from rural areas to vote in Harare’s urban constituencies such as Harare East, Mt Pleasant, Mbare among others. We believe that this move to bus people was tailor made to suit the inconsistencies of the voters roll and disenfranchise bona fide voters residing in the constituencies. We also feel that the bussing of these hapless youths is tantamount to abuse as these young people were forced to engage in criminal activities.

4) Vote manipulation

We are disturbed by reports that quite a number of Zanu-PF officials were illegally issuing out registration slips even the day before the election and on the election day. We would like to say that this alone is evidence that this year’s elections have been rigged. We are just wondering that besides those who were caught doing the illegal operation, how many more out there managed to do it and did not get caught?

Conclusion

As Youth Agenda Trust, we condemn this electoral process in its entirety and call upon regional and international bodies monitoring the elections to discredit this comic process. We therefore declare the outcome of this election NULL and VOID.

We urge ZEC to immediately abandon this chaotic process and pave way for a more credible and transparent process.

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