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Preliminary Statement on Kadoma Mayoral By-Election 27 - 28 July 2002
Zimbabwe Election Support Network (ZESN)
August 01, 2002

ZESN observed the Kadoma Mayoral Elections which were held on 27 and 28 July 2002. We had one accredited observer in 13 polling stations, 3 observers did not manage to turn up for accreditation.

ZESN would like to express its concern and dissatisfaction with the conduct of the voting process, which in the organisation’s view compromised the fairness of the election.

Of particular concern was the fact that the pre-election period was marked by significant incidents of violence and intimidation. This clearly resulted in voter apathy: the relatively low turnout - only 13 161 people managed to vote, out of 38 789 registered voters, or about 34% – was in marked contrast to the recent Presidential election, when a very high turnout was recorded.

Although the boundaries of the municipal constituencies and Kadoma Central are not identical they are similar. For the 2000 parliamentary elections there were 22 polling station which were reduced to 13 during the presidential elections and slightly increased for the mayoral election. Despite the slight increase, the polling stations were still less than adequate for voters to be able to exercise their rights. Since we have complained about long queues in the past , one would have thought that for the mayoral election the authorities would have increased the polling station or made the number equal to the one during the 2000 parliamentary elections.

Extremely long and slow-moving queues in the high density areas of Waverley, Mabanana, Kuredza and Mupamombe were observed. This could have been due to the reduction of polling stations. No justification was apparent for the extremely slow processing of votes. It is our view that this may have contributed to the relatively low voter turn out. The issue of low voter turn out should be of great concern to all the contesting political parties and civic society at large.

Large numbers of people were turned away from polling stations for various reasons: for example, at Munyaradzi primary School, by the end of Day 1 of voting, 124 people had been turned away. Equally worrying was that at the same polling station some people were allowed to vote on presentation of registration slips rather than identification cards.

Reports also reached ZESN about a number of people not on the voters roll being allowed to vote, which is clearly against all regulations. We are still investigating and verifying allegations of ‘voters’ being bussed in from areas outside the constituency.Also, of particular concern is the fact that the voters’ roll was not made available to us and other stakeholders.

Another anomaly was that there was an abnormally large number of "assisted votes" cast: this was observed both at Mabanana Primary School and at Munyaradzi Primary School. We strongly recommend that people who need assistance to vote should bring a trusted relative for the task.

In conclusion, the significant number of irregularities and problematic features of the election clearly compromise and cast doubt on the freeness, fairness and transparency of the electoral process in Kadoma.

Dr R Matchaba Hove
National Chairperson

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