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How are Zimbabweans stopped from participating in elections?
Zimbabwe Solidarity
Extracted from the Zimbabwe Solidarity Newsletter Issue 01
February 18, 2005

As indicated in our editorial, disenfranchisement is the greatest problem in the forthcoming Zimbabwe elections. It is not a new problem, and was widely seen in the 2000 elections, with a number of methods being reported in the election petitions mounted by the MDC after that election, as well as in the 2002 Presidential election.

• Inability to register - through displacement, removal of citizenship, inability to prove residence;
• Confiscating IDs so that you cannot prove your identity on polling day;
• Threats about the ways in which your vote could be detected;
• Intimidation so that you are "forced" to vote for Zanu-PF;
• Violence against opposition members;
• Coercion of rural people by chiefs and headmen;
• Denial of the postal vote to citizens outside the country;
• Limiting the number of polling stations in areas of high opposition support.

All of these were alleged to have taken place during 2000 and 2002. Which will apply in 2005?
Inability to register will be a fact for many Zimbabweans, and mostly the youth and displaced people such as the former commercial farm workers. Unable to provide proof of residence, they will not have been able to confirm their place on the voters' roll. Of course, millions of Zimbabweans outside the country will be denied a vote due to there being no postal vote. The feeble argument offered by the Minister of Justice to a court challenge to this decision, that Zanu-PF cannot campaign outside the country due to selective sanctions, does not apply to South Africa where most exiled and migrant Zimbabweans live and work.

Violence and intimidation may well frighten other voters away, but current signs are that violence may be diminishing. However, intimidation and coercion are still present, and take two forms. The first lies again in the creation of "no go" areas, policed by the militia and traditional leaders, who may well force people to vote for Zanu-PF. The second lies in the controlled access to food, and all indications suggest that food is short and getting shorter. Access to food has and will probably be used again as a form of compulsion against the rural voters.

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