STILL NO INVITATIONS!

Less than six weeks before the date of the parliamentary elections and well beyond the minimum of 90 days stipulated in the SADC Principles and Guidelines Governing Democratic Elections, the Mugabe regime has still not issued any invitations to observe or monitor the Poll, either to SADC or any other group.  The SADC guidelines require the host country to issue such an invitation at least 90 days before the voting day “in order to allow an adequate preparation for the deployment of the Electoral Observation Mission”.

7.10 (Host government responsible for)  issuing invitation … to SADC 90 (ninety) days before the voting day in order to allow an adequate preparation for the deployment of the Electoral Observation Mission

17.02.05

Zimbabwean police raided and broke up a training meeting of the opposition party ahead of next month’s parliamentary election.  The meeting of the Movement for Democratic Change’s 120 parliamentary candidates at Harare’s Sheraton Hotel was disrupted by police on 16 February.  The MDC elections director, prominent businessman Ian Makone, was arrested during the raid and held at Harare Central Police Station for a number of hours.  No charge was laid against him immediately.

As the MDC meeting was about to get under way three plain clothes police details arrived and demanded to sit through the meeting.  They then informed the gathering that the meeting was illegal under the Public Order and Security Act (POSA) and that all those present should leave immediately or face arrest.

The MDC secretary for information and publicity, Paul Themba Nyathi, put out a statement saying “the MDC notes with concern the continued disruption of its campaign programme and the continued harassment of its candidates and leaders. The disruption of MDC meetings is a clear violation of the SADC guidelines on the conduct of fair and free elections.”  The statement also draws attention to the continued rejection of its advertisements and editorials by the public media, and concludes “Today’s events make a mockery of statements claiming that Zimbabwe is on course to hold fair and free elections.  Such statements only serve to encourage the Mugabe regime to further breach the SADC principles on democratic elections.”

(See the report in The Star (SA): www.thestar.co.za/ 17.02.05)

2.1.2 Freedom of association

Constitutional and legal guarantees of freedom and rights of the citizens

Conducive environment for free, fair and peaceful elections

7.4 (Government to) safeguard the human and civil liberties of all citizens including the freedom of movement, assembly, association, expression and campaigning as well as access to the media on the part of all stakeholders …

19.02.05

PROMINENT OPPOSITION MP BARRED BY NOMINATION COURT

A nomination court in Zimbabwe has barred prominent opposition MDC member of parliament, Roy Bennett, from contesting in the forthcoming elections for the seat he currently occupies for the Chimanimani constituency.  Roy Bennett is serving a year long sentence of imprisonment imposed by parliament following a minor scuffle in the House when, severely provoked by the racist comments of Justice Minister Patrick Chinamasa, he pushed the latter to the floor.  The  nomination court rejected Bennett’s nomination application on the grounds that he is now in jail, overlooking entirely the fact that the law only disqualifies a candidate from standing if he has been convicted of a criminal offence by a criminal court.

The MDC has given notice that it will be filing an urgent court application on February 21, seeking to overturn the nomination court decision.  Meanwhile the opposition party has put forward the name of Bennett’s wife, Heather, as a stand-in candidate until the courts rule whether her husband should be allowed to contest.

(See the full report in Zim Online: www.zimonline.co.za 19.02.05)

2.1.6 Equal opportunity to exercise the right to vote and be voted for

2.1.7 Independence of the Judiciary and impartiality of the electoral institutions

7.3 (Government to) establish impartial, all-inclusive, competent and accountable bodies staffed by qualified personnel, as well as competent legal entities including effective constitutional courts to arbitrate in the event of disputes arising from the conduct of elections

13.02.05

According to The Sunday Mirror’s source, “The minister (name supplied) went to the police club where he told senior officers that Harare Central should definitely go to ZANU-PF since the Delimitation Commission had done a ‘splendid job’ by ensuring that as many voters as possible in the police, army, prisons and other security arms fell within the area by virtue of residing in military and quasi military camps”.

24.02.05

GHOST VOTERS UNEARTHED

The voters’ roll has glaring errors that are likely to disenfranchise thousands of voters, especially in urban constituencies, in the March 31 parliamentary election.  A voters’ roll audit conducted last week unearthed hundreds of ghost voters, with some entered more than once. There are also numerous incomplete addresses and dubious entries.

The opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) party says it has identified anomalies on the Harare Central, Mbare and Harare North rolls.  The MDC is carrying out audits in all urban areas.  Anomalies include the appearance of names of people in constituencies in which they do not reside and  multiple entries of the same names and identity numbers.

Independent candidate for Harare Central and former member of parliament for Harare South, Margaret Dongo, claims the discrepancies are a deliberate tool to be used by ZANU-PF to rig the March election.  In 1995 Dongo won the Harare South seat in a re-run against a ZANU-PF candidate after the court had confirmed the first round had been rigged.

“This is a tool ZANU-PF has always used to rig elections,” she said, “and if the opposition is not critical of this process, we are likely to see a two-thirds majority for ZANU-PF.”

Meanwhile MDC Harare North MP Trudy Stevenson

has discovered 82 incorrect entries at the Institute of Agricultural Engineering alone, and 52 at Pomona South Quarries.

As the MDC audit continues, so the massive extent of the inaccuracies on the voters’ roll becomes apparent and the oft-repeated claim of those who have made a study of it, that the roll is in a shambles, is borne out again and again.

(See the front page report in the Zimbabwe Independent: www.theindependent.co.zw  24.02.05)

2.1.7 Independence of the Judiciary and impartiality of the electoral institutions

4.1.4 Existence of updated and accessible voters’ roll

7.5 (Government to) take all necessary measures and precautions to prevent the perpetration of fraud, rigging or any other illegal practices throughout the whole electoral process …

18.02.05

The High Court in Bulawayo on February 17 ordered the police not to prevent or interfere with an exercise by opposition member of parliament David Coltart to verify whether supporters in his Bulawayo South constituency were properly registered on the constituency voters’ roll.  Earlier in the week the police had arrested seven Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) activists who were on a door-to-door campaign in the constituency checking whether party members appeared on the roll.

In his ruling in chambers Justice Misheck Cheda interdicted the police from taking any further action to interfere with the voters’ roll verification and analysis process.  The judge found the conduct of the police “reprehensible and retrogressive”.

The MDC accuses the police of selectively applying the law to victimize its activists and hamstring its campaign ahead of next month’s election.

(Reported in Zim Online:  www.zimonline.co.za 18.02.05)

2.1.6 Equal opportunity to exercise the right to vote and be voted for

7.5 (Government to) take all necessary measures and precautions to prevent the perpetration of fraud, rigging or any other illegal practices …

20.02.05

Three senior correspondents for leading international news agencies were forced to flee the country last week as the ZANU-PF onslaught on the media intensified ahead of next month’s elections.  Jan Raath writing for The Times of London, Angus Shaw for Associated Press and Brian Latham for several South African papers, were subjected to the most intrusive and threatening police scrutiny.  They were accused of operating a spy ring and subsequently of working as journalists without being registered under the draconian Access to Information and Protection of Privacy Act (AIPPA), both of which charges they strongly denied.  In fact they had submitted their applications to the Media and Information Commission when the law came into effect, and were awaiting a response from the commission. The trio’s lawyer, Beatrice Mtetwa, denied the journalists had violated any law and said the police action against them was a “clear case of harassment and intimidation”.

Jan Raath describes his ordeal in an article in The Times (February 19):  “For three days they (the police) poked around our office …. It was obvious they were looking for anything they could stick on us.  On the third visit, they were led by the head of the CID’s “Law and Order” section, suggesting that the orders to raid us must have come from the very top.”  Then the trio received a tip off from a friend who had a contact in the Central Intelligence Organisation (CIO) that “they are gunning for you … this time it is going to be rough. You must get out now.”  The three journalists who had been reporting from Zimbabwe for many years, decided the time had come to leave the country they loved, without delay.  They put into effect contingency plans made some time ago when the level of repression began to increase significantly, and each made their way independently to different border posts.  

The action against Raath, Shaw and Latham is the latest in a series of moves against the independent and foreign media. The previous week the CIO launched a massive manhunt for journalist Cornelius Nduna, whom they said they wished to interrogate in connection with sensitive videotapes in his possession.  At the same time state prosecutors revived a three-year old case against newspaper columnist, Pius Wakatama, in connection with a story, subsequently proved to have been false, which he is accused of repeating in one of his columns.

(See Jan Raath’s report in The Times (London): www.timesonline.co.uk/ 19.02.05 and Brian Latham’s account in The Sunday Times (UK): www.timesonline.co.uk/  20.02.05)

2.1.3 Political tolerance

4.1.1 Constitutional and legal guarantees of freedom and rights of the citizens

4.1.2 Conducive environment for free, fair and peaceful elections

7.4 (Government to) safeguard the human and civil liberties of all citizens including the freedom of movement, assembly, association, expression and campaigning as well as access to the media on the part of all stakeholders, during (the electoral process)

17.02.05

MEDIA GROUP SAYS ZIMBABWE NON-COMPLIANT WITH SADC

The Media Monitoring Project of Zimbabwe (MMPZ), a local non-governmental organisation that fights for media freedom, says Zimbabwe has failed to open up public media to all political parties in line with regional requirements governing the running of elections.

In a report entitled “Media and the 2005 Parliamentary Elections”, the MMPZ criticizes the public media’s election coverage in the run-up to next month’s election saying it is heavily tilted in favour of the ruling ZANU-PF party and government.   The coverage flouts Southern African Development Community (SADC) regulations agreed by the regional bloc last August, says the media group.

“Clearly, even by mid-February, conditions for fair and equitable access to the state media by all political parties still do not exist … these media organisations (state-controlled) continue to favour the ruling party while suppressing the activities of the main political opposition.”

“Neither the ESC (Electoral Supervisory Commission) nor the ZEC (Zimbabwe Electoral Commission) have set minimum standards for direct access and mechanisms for monitoring and enforcing these standards,” it says.   The two electoral bodies, whose members were appointed by Mugabe, will run the March election.

Meanwhile the main opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) party spokesman, Paul Themba Nyathi, has dismissed new government regulations purporting to allow all political parties access to state radio and television as “cosmetic” and “primarily aimed at tricking the region into believing that Zimbabwe is complying with the set guidelines.”

(Reported in Zim Online: www.zimonline.co.za 17/19.02.05)

2.1.5 Equal opportunity for all political parties to access the state media

18.02.05

The Mugabe regime is refusing to sanction the visit of a high-powered SADC delegation which wants to assess whether conditions in the country comply with regional guidelines for democratic elections.  They are not prepared to allow a team of lawyers from the SADC organ on politics, defence and security to inspect electoral conditions – and it appears that South Africa’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs at least is willing to collude with this defiance.

The SADC Secretariat in Gaberone, Botswana, received a letter on February 15 from the South African Department of Foreign Affairs, stating that “the issue of the legal experts’ visit should not be followed up.”

SADC spokesperson Esther Kanaimba said from Gaberone that they had received the South African notification from Dr Jessie Duarte’s office.  She is the director for multilateral affairs in the Department of Foreign Affairs.  Kanaimba said she could not comment on the contents of the letter.  However it is believed the letter states the issue was discussed “at the highest level” in South Africa and that it was felt it was “unnecessary to follow it up.”   Kanaimba said the SADC Secretariat has no power to send in a legal team to Zimbabwe and they were awaiting further orders from South Africa – which chairs the directorate of politics, defence and security.

Meanwhile Mugabe is continuing to lobby neighbours to declare that he is complying with the regional electoral norms. He sent one trusted ally, Zanu-PF Secretary for Administration, *Didymus Mutasa, to seek outgoing Namibian President Sam Nujoma’s backing last week and dispatched Special Affairs Minister John Nkomo to meet Botswana’s President Festus Mogae.  Diplomats in Harare said Mugabe wanted SADC leaders to whitewash the result of the election likely to be won by his party.

Also last week a Democratic Alliance (DA) mission was turned back at Harare Airport, as had been a Congress of South African Trade Unions (COSATU) delegation and two Southern African Trade Union Co-ordinating Council officials earlier in the month.

(Reported in the Mail & Guardian: www.mg.co.za/  18.02.05 in News24 (SA): www.news24.com 16.02.05 and The Sunday Times (SA): www.suntimes.co.za/ 20.02.05)

* In a report published on 8 September 2003 in Zimbabwe’s Daily News, Didymus Mutasa, then ZANU-PF’s secretary for external affairs, said Zimbabweans abroad were out to spread lies about the conditions at home. He said: "They are a crazy gang on a mission to spread falsehoods about their mother country. Everything is normal in Zimbabwe, and anyone who thinks otherwise should have his head examined.”

Paragraph 6 of the SADC Guidelines requires accreditation for SADC Election Observers, that they be given freedom of movement within the host country, unhindered access to the media, free access to all electoral legislation and to the voters’ roll. 

Other provisions afford further rights to those appointed by SADC to observe the electoral process. 

7.8 (Host government to) ensure the transparency and integrity of the entire electoral process by … accrediting national and/other observers/monitors 

7.12 Host government to be responsible for) accreditation of the members of the SADC Electoral Observation and Monitoring team as election observers on a non-discriminatory basis

SADC CHECK LIST 

SOKWANELE has produced a detailed analysis of the Zimbabwean statutes that are in breach of the SADC Principles and Guidelines Governing Democratic Elections and the policy breaches by the ZANU-PF government. 

Entitled “ZIMBABWE ELECTORAL LEGISLATION : SADC CHECK LIST”, the document can be seen on our website at www.sokwanele.com