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This article participates on the following special index pages:
2002 Presidential & Harare Municipal elections - Index of articles
Civic
Groups' Indictment of the Presidential Election
Crisis
in Zimbabwe Coalition
March 12, 2002
Harare - The
people of Zimbabwe went to the polls from the 9th-11th
March, with the intention of choosing the next leader of their government.
The constitution confers upon them the fundamental right to, inter
alia, form and belong to a political party of their choice as
well as the right to choose or reject leaders through polls. It
also confers upon aspiring leaders the freedom to canvass for votes
and to articulate their policies and views freely.
It is a truism
that in a democratic system free and fair election confers legitimacy
upon a government. An election is only free and fair if it meets
certain minimum conditions and standards, which are now universally
accepted and recognised. Zimbabwe is a member of SADC and therefore
a party to the SADC Parliamentary Forum's Norms and Standards for
Free and Fair Elections as well the Commonwealth Harare Declaration
of 1991.The country is thus morally and legally bound by the principles
enunciated in these International Instruments.
After closely
analysing the just concluded Zimbabwean Presidential elections,
The Crisis in Zimbabwe Coalition concludes that the process failed
to meet most of the basic requirements for a Free and Fair process.
In particular,
both the pre-poll and polling periods were characterised by gross
irregularities which are as follows:
Violence
TOP
Following the
government's loss in the February 2000 Constitutional Referendum
Zimbabwe was plunged into an orgy of nation-wide state-sponsored
violence. This tragic development obtains to date. Leaders of the
war veterans, war collaborators and Zanu PF youths have been in
the forefront of this systematic terror campaign. This systematic
terror has been targeted at leaders of civic groups and opposition
party activists and leaders. The machinery of violence has been
organised along the same lines as the mobilisation strategy for
the final phase of the 1970s liberation war. It is presided over
by war veterans, their informants and some co-opted traditional
leaders. Scores of rural voters have been systematically tortured
and subjected to a traumatic politicisation process referred to
as "re-education". Illegal roadblocks continue
to be mounted throughout the country and this parallel justice system
flourishes with the blessing of the state. The main aim of both
the institutions and methodology of terror has been to weaken or
destroy perceived strongholds of the opposition, namely the peasantry,
white commercial farming sector, its labour force and urban voters.
These sectors of the populace have been variously referred to as
' enemies of state, snakes, sell-outs, and cats and dogs '.
Most of the
youths responsible for this terror were recruited from amongst the
hundreds of thousands of unemployed school leavers in both rural
and urban areas. This epitomises two sad developments in our post-colonial
history, namely political merchandising with the suffering of the
poor and militarisation of communities of suffering .We have thus
witnessed the inculcation of a state ideology of terror, and an
under-class culture of criminality. In many instances there is evidence
of complicity of the police, intelligence service and the army in
these criminal activities.
This violence
has involved killings, disappearances, torture, assaults, death
threats, rape, arson ,malicious injury to property and displacement.
In excess of 500 000 cases of gross Human Rights violations have
been recorded from March 2000 to the present. The torture has included
whipping with sticks, iron rods, barbed wire and various other dangerous
instruments. Evidence of falanga (beating under the feet),
slapping around the ears until the ear drums are ruptured, electrical
shock treatment, mock drowning, burning by forcing victims onto
fires, pouring burning plastic onto them and branding them with
hot metal and mass rape has been collected and collated by our members.
There have been
very few prosecutions in the majority of such criminal acts. At
worst there has been selective application of the law such that
the victims are often charged as perpetrators. Even where the perpetrators
are well known, police have been reluctant to proceed against them
.For instance one Biggie Chitoro, a notorious ZANU PF war veteran
had been arrested for murder by torturing Fainos Zhou to death in
June 2000. He was released from prison and he re-established a torture
camp at Texas Farm in Mberengwa. Over 90% of the documented violence
has been perpetrated by ZANU PF supporters and has been directed
at 'perceived' MDC supporters and other citizens.
The suspension
of the 'rule of law' and the curtailment of the most basic fundamental
rights resulted in the inability of any party other than ZANU PF
to organise and campaign for the presidential election. Huge areas
of Zimbabwe became no go areas for any citizen other than a ZANU-PF
member or official.
Passing
of legislation which was designed to subvert the democratic process
TOP
Towards the
end of year 2001, in a bid to ensure that no party other than the
ruling party was able to freely operate, the government fast tracked
a number of controversial pieces of legislation. These include:
the General Laws Electoral Amendment Act, the Public Order and Security
Act, and Access to Information and Protection of Privacy Act. Although
the General Laws Amendment Act was declared null and void by the
Supreme Court, a few days before the Presidential Elections, the
President through his Emergency Powers, restored the operation of
the provisions of that Act.
Militarisation
of the Electoral Supervisory Commission (ESC) TOP
The ESC and
the accreditation committee which, in accordance with democratic
principles, are supposed to be independent of the Executive, were
deliberately staffed by members of the military. Prominent war veteran
lawyer Colonel Gula-Ndebele was appointed head of the ESC while
a serving army brigadier; Douglas Nyikaramba was appointed chief
of operations. All the key personnel who held crucial posts in the
Electoral office during this election are serving members of the
army.
Deliberate
withholding of crucial electoral information TOP
From the start
of the election process the flow of crucial information to opposition
candidates was poor. For example the opposition were not given sufficient
information on the number and location of polling stations, and
therefore, had insufficient time to provide an adequate number of
agents for the polling stations. Thus many voters were denied sufficient
information on the logistics of the election process up-to the polling
day.
Reduction
of polling stations in urban areas TOP
The reduction
of polling stations in the urban areas led to widespread delays
and administrative slow-downs in the urban areas. The result was
that the urban electorate was forced to spend long hours in poorly
administered voting lines. Tragically, this has led to the disenfranchisement
of many urban voters, forced to concede their constitutional right
to vote, by a regime determined to frustrate certain sections of
the Zimbabwean citizenry.
Disenfranchisement
of Permanent Residents TOP
The government
of Zimbabwe deliberately passed legislation that was designed to
disenfranchise large sections of the black migrant working class,
white, Asian and coloured communities .The election thus became
an arena where citizenship was narrowly defined to mean allegiance
to the ruling party . Many persons who were either born in or have
resided in Zimbabwe for periods in excess of 15 years- being of
foreign descent- were denied their right to vote in both the Municipal
and presidential elections. This is a serious travesty of justice
.More so considering that the same persons had been allowed to vote
in previous presidential, parliamentary and municipal elections
.
Local
Observers and Monitors TOP
Civic groups
were denied the right to monitor the elections as well as the right
to carry out civic education as they have done in previous elections.
The government invited civic groups to submit names, and in accordance
with this procedure, 15 000 names were supplied to adequately cover
the country. The response of the authorities was to accredit a paltry
300 local observers, at the 11th hour. These could not
have been expected to cover the elections in any meaningful way.
International
observers and monitors TOP
The decision
by the government to erect impediments to the monitoring role of
international observers was clearly designed to avert scrutiny of
the electoral process. The international observers, who had been
allowed to observe our elections in the past, were barred from carrying
out that role. Instead, observers considered more sympathetic to
the ruling party were invited, in line with a selective conception
of Pan-African and Third World solidarity. The result has been a
series of ill-timed statements, in particular from representatives
from the SADC region, that have provided an impression of continued
complicity with the Mugabe regime.
Registration
of voters TOP
The registration
of voters was the most chaotic feature of the pre-election process.
There was a blatant selective registration of voters. In Mashonaland
East, Mashonaland West, and Mashonaland Central, registration of
voters went on until a few days before polling. Consequently the
voters roll used for the election was not available for inspection
either to civic groups or opposition political parties.
Supplementary
voters roll TOP
The supplementary
voters roll was never made public. To date only the government is
in possession of the number of voters on this roll. The distribution
of voters throughout the country is therefore unclear. Thus providing
opportunities for manipulation by the incumbent regime.
Access
to public media TOP
One of the most
striking features of this election was the use of the public media,
specifically the Zimbabwe Broadcasting Corporation, as a 24-hour
propaganda machine for the ruling party. The demonisation of the
opposition and civic voices, which were seen as anti-ruling party,
was a key feature of the propaganda campaign. The only means of
communication for the opposition and civil society was private media,
but even that was largely restricted to particular urban areas,
with many areas established as "no go areas" by ZANU PF
leadership and militia. The central task of the public broadcasting
authority was thus to define the legitimate national community according
to party political affiliation, and to place all dissenting voices
outside of the "official" national discourse.
In any democratic
system, the right to informed opinion, is a prerequisite for meaningful
discussion, and the creation of a tolerant public sphere. Zimbabwean
citizens have been denied the right to create a more open, diverse
environment for discussion and dialogue.
Conclusion
TOP
More than any
other election in Zimbabwe's history, the 2002 Presidential election
has become an arena of international involvement, largely due to
the ways in which Zanu PF has trampled on a plethora of human and
civic rights, in the name of a narrowly defined conception of national
sovereignty. For if this noble idea is to have any substance it
must deal with issues of both economic inequality and civic rights.
President Mugabe's strategy, in particular over the last two years
has been to center the political debate in Zimbabwe around the land
question, and in so doing completely marginalise and trivialise
the broader rights questions in the political sphere. The result
has been to privilege certain strands of the liberation legacy at
the expense of others. It is therefore not surprising that the election
process has undermined one of the central rallying calls of the
nationalist legacy, namely the demand for 'one man one vote'. For
essentially this had been the result of the selective voter registration
process, and the disenfranchisement of many urban voters.
In light of
the foregoing we as the Crisis in Zimbabwe Coalition find that the
process of the presidential elections has not enabled the will of
the people to be expressed freely and fairly . The incumbent regime
should not be allowed to benefit from its dereliction of duty .It
is our considered view that an illegitimately elected government
can not be recognised either by the people of Zimbabwe or the International
Community. We therefore demand substantive reforms to the election
process and an immediate return to the need for constitutional reform.
Compiled by
the Crisis in Zimbabwe Committee:
Brian Raftopoulos
(Chairperson)
Andrew
Nongogo (Spokesperson)
Brian
Kagoro (Coordinator)
Contact
Numbers : 793246 or 793247 or 793277
Visit the Crisis
in Zimbabwe fact
sheet
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