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Election Bulletin #2
Crisis in Zimbabwe Coalition
March 08, 2002

Brief analysis of allocation of polling stations for Harare Tripartite Elections March 2002
Combine Harare Residents' Association (CHRA)

Mike Davies of CHRA has been investigating the allocation of polling stations in Harare's Tripartite Election in March 2002. These elections are the Presidential, Harare Mayoral and Councillor Elections on March 09-10, 2002.

His calculations below show the impact of the Registrar-General's decision to substantially reduce the number of polling stations available this year. A reduction of 33% in the number of polling stations has brought the total number down from 202 in the General Election (2000) to 135 in the 2002 elections.

The Combined Harare Residents Association has led the fight for democratic representation on behalf of the citizens of Harare since the suspension of the Council in 1999. Through a combination of resident mobilisation and litigation, we forced government to hold municipal elections. The High Court initially set a timetable for these to be held in December but when the Registrar General wilfully ignored this order, we again applied to the High Court and a further order was granted setting a new schedule (for 18 February elections). The President subsequently issued Statutory Instrument 13A overruling the court's decision and decreed that elections would be held on 9 and 10 March. We are pursuing a legal challenge to this decree but the lack of time undermines further effective legal action.

It was never our intention to see these held concurrently with the Presidential election since we believe the Registrar General has neither the capability nor the inclination to hold these in a fair, free and transparent manner. Our extensive analysis of the rolls supports these doubts:

• Data entry itself is flawed eg Surname and First Names transposed; Address details incomplete, misspelled or inconsistently entered.
• Voters from other areas appear in the wrong constituency

The Registrar General has consistently refused to provide information timeously to this organisation and has hindered our efforts to educate our members and residents generally. Efforts to obtain the updated voters roll have been rebuffed and the printed rolls are of limited value since no data analysis or voter verification can take place. The printed rolls are sorted alphabetically by Surname - there is no provision to verify by National Identification number or address.

1. Polling stations by Constituency

On Friday March 01, 2002 (ZTV “Face the Nation”) the Registrar General stated that there would be 40 – 50 polling stations per constituency. The following table demonstrates the fallacy of this statement. The data was supplied by the RG’s office to candidates.

Note: 5 additional Hatfield polling stations are in Epworth and are only for the presidential ballot since Epworth does not have elected councillors.

2. Estimation of voter pressure at polling stations (Partial analysis by ward)

Voters must vote within their constituency. Since the ward boundaries are not always within a single constituency, they have to select a polling station that also is in their constituency. This limits their choice of stations. The following table does not take this into consideration and assumes an even distribution amongst all stations.

The figures in Table 1 below:

• are based on the January 10 voters roll since we have been unable to obtain the updated roll
• are based on 12 hours per day, 7am - 7 pm
• would indicate that there is no chance of the polling stations dealing with the demand. Even if polling days are doubled, it is unlikely that the Registrar General will be able to process all would-be voters.

Table 1

Table 2 Comparative analysis of polling stations for General Election 2000 and Tripartite Elections 2002

The figures would indicate that there is no chance of the polling stations dealing with the demand. Even if polling days are doubled, it is unlikely that the Registrar General will be able to process all would-be voters. It is our contention that if the Registrar General fails to

• increase substantially the number of polling stations
• provide full and clear details of the voting process to educate voterS
• provide voters rolls electronically at nominal cost to all interested parties
• ensure that the voting procedure facilitates rather than hinders the democratic process
• ensure that ballot papers placed in the incorrect box will be reallocated to their intended ballot box rather then deemed "spoiled" there can be no reasonable expectation of a free and fair election.

We therefore appeal to the Observer Missions to take cognisance of our concerns and to bring pressure to bear upon the Registrar General to institute such measures as may be required to address these legitimate concerns.

M. Davies, Chair
Combined Harare Residents' Association
11 Armagh Rd Eastlea Harare
Cell 091 249 430

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