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Poll reforms like putting 'lipstick on a frog'
Njabulo Ncube,The Financial Gazette
July 22, 2004

http://www.fingaz.co.zw/fingaz/2004/July/July22/6037.shtml

Zimbabwe's civic groups remain largely unimpressed by the changes to the country's electoral procedures recently proposed by the government whose aim, in a certain sense, is to lose as little as possible politically.

Taking advantage of the on-going Sixth Southern African Development Community (SADC) Electoral Commissions annual conference in Victoria Falls, they are circulating a damning report criticising the "cosmetic" electoral reforms proposed by the government. After relentless diplomatic, opposition and moral pressure, the government, through Patrick Chinamasa, the Justice, Legal and Parliamentary Affairs Minister, recently announced ZANU PF's intention to overhaul the country's controversial electoral system.

He said this would be done through the appointment a five-member Zimbabwe Electoral Commission, reducing the number of voting days to one and the use of translucent boxes.

The other changes would entail the use of visible indelible ink to replace the invisible ink, the setting up of an ad hoc court to immediately deal with electoral disputes within six months and the suspension of the use of mobile voting stations, among other changes.

But civic groups with strong ties with the opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) maintained the proposed changes were not comprehensive.

And Crisis in Zimbabwe Coalition, a loose coalition of more than 350 civil organisations, has taken advantage of the presence of SADC officials at the Victoria Falls to circulate the document entitled "Lipstick on yet another frog".

The document is a critique on the implications of the proposed electoral reforms in Zimbabwe in which the government also says citizens who attain 18 years would be automatically included on the voters' roll in their constituencies and that verification and vote counting would be undertaken at the polling stations. The government also proposes freezing transfers from one constituency to another when there is a by-election.

But the document urges delegates to the sixth SADC annual general conference, whose theme is Elections, Democracy and National Development, not to be hoodwinked by the proposed electoral reforms.

"The glaring silence of the government on contentious legislation such as the Access to Information and Protection of Privacy Act (AIPPA) and (Public Order and Security Act (POSA) demonstrates the govern-ment's intention to tinker with, rather than transform the electoral environment," reads part of the 10-page document widely circulated among the delegates attending the five-day conference of the regional grouping's electoral commissions.

"It is also noteworthy that nothing has been mentioned concerning the vote of millions of Zimbabweans in the diaspora.

"Needless to say, the majority of these Zimbabweans living abroad are victims of a repressive political culture that has refused to reform itself despite alarming levels of disenchantment on the way the country is being administered," it said.

The conference is being hosted by Zimbabwe's Electoral Supervisory Commission (ESC) which is a member of the Electoral Commissions Forum (ECF) of SADC countries founded in 1998.

It brings together electoral commissions from the region for the purposes of sharing experiences and encouraging democratic practices.

"Perhaps, there is an aesthetic value to putting lipstick on a frog for it will look pretty for a short while.

"However, the country is now beyond the politics of cosmetic gestures because of the deepening legitimacy and governance crisis that Zimbabwe has been grappling with since ZANU PF lost the hearts and souls of Zimbabweans following its drubbing in the constitutional referendum of February 2000."

In the document, the civic grouping said the minimum conditions for a free and fair election must include the dismantling of the infrastructure of violence such as the "Green Bombers" (graduates of the Border Gezi youth camps), the limitation of the presidential powers in elections, a code of conduct that is agreed by all stakeholders, the freeing of the airwaves and the repeal of draconian legislation such as AIPPA and POSA.

"These laws inhibit the exercise of democracy," says the document.

"It will be naïve for Zimbabweans to believe free and fair elections would be possible without the repeal of POSA and AIPPA which restrict freedoms of assembly, association and expression of all stakeholders, bar ZANU PF."

Since the formation of the ECF in 1998, annual general conferences have been held in Tanzania, Zambia, Botswana, Malawi and Mozambique.

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