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Unlevel
playing field - A barrier to free and fair elections
International
Bar Association (IBA)
Extracted from the IBA Weekly Column on Zimbabwe – No 066
March 01, 2005
The term ‘leveling
the playing field’ is much used in politics, often in the context
of elections. The guidelines for holding democratic elections, which
members of the Southern African Development Community (SADC) signed
in August last year, are meant to do just that: set universally
applicable norms and standards to ensure all parties are treated
equally in an electoral contest. However, the playing field in Zimbabwe’s
parliamentary elections next month is about as level as a football
pitch on a rocky mountainside.
Imagine this
scenario. Two teams face up for a challenge, but one side fields
more players than the other, all of whom are better equipped than
the smaller team. The larger team has been able to practise regularly
and without distruption on a well-maintained field. The smaller
team is forced to practise on unused and poorly maintained back
lots. Its training sessions are frequently interrupted, so the players
never know if they will be allowed to finish training or not.
Some of the
referees only red card the smaller team, while the rulings of other
referees are completely ignored by the bigger team. That team also
likes to hog the ball, passing it back and forth between the top
players on the team while the others wait in vain for the ball to
be passed to them. From time to time, the captain sends one of his
players from the pitch but swiftly replaces him to ensure his team
remains numerically stronger.
Several journalists
cover the game. Some report only on the larger team’s actions and,
when things get a little dull, announce that the team has scored
even when it hasn’t or embellish on the top player’s ball handling.
Some of the journalists try to report what really is happening on
the field, but they don’t have television cameras and only one or
two have radio recording devices or microphones. The spectators,
therefore, can‘t hear what this group of journalists is reporting,
so they follow along with the commentators who favour the bigger
team. Many of the spectators have been bussed to the game by the
larger team, which also has handed out free lunch parcels. And so
on and so forth.
This, more or
less, describes the current situation in Zimbabwe. While the government
of President Mugabe has made an attempt to clean up some of the
more overt abuses, as Brian Raftopolous of the Crisis in Zimbabwe
Coalition has put it, substantively little has changed on the electoral
playing field since the controversial 2000 and 2002 elections. There
is no chance, therefore, that the upcoming parliamentary elections
will be a true democratic contest between the ruling Zanu-PF and
the opposition.
Here are some
examples of just how uneven the playing field is:
- Shortly after
the opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) announced
its participation in the elections, the government gazetted a
20-fold increase in the deposit fees for candidates. The fee now
stands at 2 million Zimbabwe dollars per candidate. ‘This is
a clear attempt to use money to prevent democracy,’ says the
MDC‘s secretary-general Welshman Ncube. He says the MDC has spent
240 million Zimbabwe dollars to field its candidates in the 120
constituencies. This means the party has had to pay a quarter
of its 3.1-billion-dollar allocation from state funds for political
parties back to government for the candidates‘ fees.
- The cost
of obtaining a copy of the voters‘ roll was also increased. The
price is now ten times higher and stands at 10 million dollars.
Raftopolous said the MDC’s attempts to get an electronic copy
of the voters‘ roll are still being obstructed, as they have been
since 2000. He also points to the ‘many irregularities’ on the
voters‘ roll. According to FreeZim, an independent research group,
800'000 dead Zimbabweans are listed on the register as well as
900'000 voters who are not known or who do not reside at the address
with which they are registered. The organisation describes more
than 2 million of the 5.6 million registered voters on the roll
as ‘suspect’.
- The state-controlled
electronic media last week declared it would give access to the
MDC, which previously had been barred from using the Zimbabwe
Broadcasting Company’s television and radio channels. However,
in practise this access has been limited. While Ncube noted that
in the recent TV coverage of two MDC events its candidates ‘were
at least allowed to speak for themselves’, he points out that
between the 18th and 20th of February, only
two MDC events were broadcast while ‘three-quarters of the evening
news in the same period covered Zanu campaigns’. On Sunday
evening’s television news broadcast, five stories were dedicated
to the ruling party and/or President Mugabe, while MDC events
were ignored.
- The High
Court recently ruled that police should not interfere with the
opposition party’s door-to-door campaigning. Numerous MDC supporters
were arrested for handing out pamphlets on the street, putting
them in letter boxes or checking the accuracy of the voters‘ roll
by going door to door and speaking to voters. In one incident,
the MDC campaigners were accused of ‘littering’ when handing out
pamphlets at a shopping mall, Ncube says. The MDC has also been
barred from campaigning at army and police barracks. Earlier this
month, the MDC’s elections co-ordinator, Ian Makone, was arrested
and later released without charge when police broke up a party
campaign meeting citing the Public Order and Security Act (Posa)
which requires police permission for large gatherings. While opposition
supporters are being arrested for handing out pamphlets and speaking
to registered voters, 30 Zanu-PF youth supporters were arrested
for going on a violent rampage in early February, attacking MDC
supporters and stabbing a policeman.
It may come
as a glimmer of hope that the MDC received 3.1 billion Zimbabwe
dollars (compared to Zanu-PF’s 3.4 billion) from state funds for
the elections. But once again reality reveals the rocky playing
field. ‘In terms of access to resources, yes it does help to
get that sort of money. However, we are dealing with a party which
has no shame in appropriating state resources for its campaign,’
Ncube says. Government vehicles – funded and fuelled by tax payers‘
money - are used by President Mugabe and Zanu candidates to campaign
around the country, while the army and police provide security at
Zanu-PF election events. The ruling party believes that all state
property is available to it, Ncube says. ‘So 3 billion dollars doesn’t
come close to leveling the playing field.’
President Mugabe
has often pointed to the newly created Electoral Supervisory Commission
to prove that his government is adhering to the SADC guidelines.
However, the Zimbabwe Election Support Network (ZESN), an independent
election monitoring group, has said in a recently released report
that the Commission ‘with the best will in the world’ would
not be able to improve the country’s electoral system, nor could
it ensure that the upcoming elections will be free and fair. The
time given to the ESC and its five commissioners simply is not enough
to fulfil the task it has been assigned. Ncube says the MDC has
written to the Commission on several occasions. While every letter
except one has received a reply, the ESC’s ‘responses are useless’
because they either ignore the issues raised in the letters or merely
acknowledge the MDC’s request for a meeting. Ncube says the commissioners
are ‘overwhelmed’ by the task and lacked the time and resources
to ensure a smooth and fair running of the elections.
In a recent
interview, Mugabe said: ‘Democracy is rules, you cannot operate
without rules. You must recognise how people together can share
power.’ True enough, neither a football match nor a democracy can
function without rules. However, President Mugabe seems to miss
one key factor: the rules have to be applied equally to all who
participate.
*This column
is provided by the International Bar Association, an
organisation that represents the Law Societies and Bar Associations
around the world, and works to uphold the rule of law.
For further
information, visit the website www.ibanet.org
Please credit www.kubatana.net if you make use of material from this website.
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons License unless stated otherwise.
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