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Electoral Issues - February 28th, 2002
Elections 2002 - Daily Update # 1 - extract
Media Monitoring Project Zimbabwe
March 01, 2002

With just seven days to go before polling, ZBC's audiences began to receive important public information about the electoral process. But this was delivered piecemeal and unannounced, and by no means covered all aspects of the information required by voters to cast their ballots effectively.

ZBC (8pm) reported that the Supreme Court upheld Registrar-General Tobaiwa Mudede's appeal that voting in the presidential election would be constituency based. Minister of Justice, Patrick Chinamasa was quoted (ZTV, 8pm) saying that the ruling "means business as usual" reiterating government's argument that it would need three years to come up with a voters' roll for a non-constituency based election. No comment was sought from civic organizations or legal experts. And no effort was made to clarify how this would affect crucial information relating to where the electorate can vote.

The electoral authorities have still not released a list of polling stations, although they have made an effort to explain where the residents of Harare and Chitungwiza should vote in the three-tier elections in those centres. This has emerged in the form of an advertisement from the Electoral Supervisory Commission broadcast before during and after the 8pm television news bulletin.

The advertisement states: "Vote for Zimbabwe's president, mayor and councilor at the one-stop polling station in your ward. If you vote outside, though in your constituency, you can only vote for the president. Once your hands are inked, you cannot Go to your ward and vote for mayor and councilor. Go and vote in your wards."

Similar adverts by the ESC appeared in the Press for the first time the following day (1/3/02), but the Commission has still not published vital information about ward boundaries.

ZBC has not attempted to analyze the implications of such a process, which could disenfranchise many residents from voting for a mayor and councilors of their choice.

In the same bulletin Minister Chinamasa (ZTV, 8pm) underplayed the significance of information on the conduct of the election in Harare and Chitungwiza when asked to inform residents how they will vote. He argued that there would be no confusion during the election.

"There will be three ballot boxes, one for the president, one for the mayor and the other for the councilor for that ward. And these boxes will be in different colours and so will be the ballot papers, so I don't think that this adds to any confusion. But also we must bear in mind of course that the Harare electorate is an urban electorate, more sophisticated than you would find in the rural areas".

Chinamasa's assumption that the 'sophistication' of the urban electorate is reasonable cause to believe there will be no confusion during the election cannot be used to deny people clear information on how they should exercise their right to choose their leaders.

ZTV (8pm) followed an earlier story that the Supreme Court ruling had nullified the General Laws Amendment Act, which had been unconstitutionally passed in Parliament after its initial defeat in the House in January. Minister Chinamasa denounced the ruling while defending the government:

"I am not aware of any constitutional limitations or constraints which would in fact affect the manner in which we conducted ourselves in Parliament." Chinamasa stated that the ruling would affect the training and deployment of monitors, and the accreditation of observers stating: "those aspects will be affected slightly but not fundamentally".

Hinting at government's intention to reintroduce some of the amendments Chinamasa stated: "I am going to reproduce those in regulations which in fact I am empowered to do under the Electoral Act."

The ZTV report did not seek to clarify the regulations he plans to reintroduce, or the aspects of the electoral process affected by the court's decision. In addition, no comment was sought from the minister, legal experts, or civic organizations over the effect the ruling would have on the electoral process, thus perpetuating the delay in providing crucial information relating to the status and accreditation of local observers, among other issues.

All of ZBC's radio stations ignored this important ruling.

Radio Zimbabwe now has slots between programmes which it informs the public about what is happening in various provinces with regard to the presidential election. The station (5.30pm) reported that Lupane will have 50 polling stations for the election. However, there was no information on the actual location of these polling stations. The report went on to reveal that the Registrar General's office was still registering people for the presidential election. The reporter did not analyze the implications of registering people just nine days before the election, nor was there any information on who was monitoring the registration exercise.

The MEDIA UPDATE is produced and circulated by the Media Monitoring Project Zimbabwe, 15 Duthie Avenue, Alexandra Park, Harare, Tel/fax: 263 4 703702, E-mail: monitors@mweb.co.zw or advocacy@media-monitors.icon.co.zw
Send all queries and comments to the Project Coordinator. Also, please feel free to circulate this report. Previous copies of MMPZ reports can be accessed at http://www.icon.co.zw/mmpz

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