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Voices
from within - Election monitors: "nothing has changed!"
Zimbabwe
Solidarity
Extracted
from the Zimbabwe Solidarity Newsletter: Issue 03
March 05, 2005
In the run-up to the
March 31st parliamentary elections reports form within Zimbabwe
are univocal: Nothing has changed in terms of election administration.
There is no way the Zimbabwe regime can be understood to living up to
the spirit of the SADC guidelines for free and fair elections.
Despite a plethora
of election related "reforms" announced and promulgated by the Government
of Zimbabwe, the running of elections are still in the hands of ZANU PF,
one of the contesting parties. There are several bodies that administer
elections, but the majority of Zimbabweans thought that the Zimbabwe Election
Commission (ZEC) would take over the running of elections. This is not
the case. The infamous Registrar General, Tobaiwa Mudede, will essentially
run these elections and will do so with the historical bias that he has
always possessed. He, like the Zimbabwe Republic Police Commissioner,
declared in 2002 that he is a Zanu-PF supporter. How can one state bluntly
that nothing has changed?
Firstly, the Delimitation
Commission, set-up to review the electoral constituencies, reduced Harare
and Bulawayo constituencies by one. Despite the population density of
Harare and Bulawayo, these two cities now have fewer polling stations
than rural provinces like Mashonaland East, Central and West to mention
a few. It is widely understood that the delimitation itself, was done
by the Registrar General, long before the Delimitation Commission was
actually appointed. Interestingly, the new ZEC was not responsible for
the drawing of election boundaries.
Also, the number of
polling stations, about 5,500 (going by the number of inspection centers),
are fewer than the number for the 2000 Parliamentary elections which were
more than 7000 even though now, five years on, Zimbabwe is supposed to
have a larger registered voting population of about 5 658 637. It is likely
that voters will experience a repeat of the same practices in urban areas
as in 2002: standing in queues for long hours and many being
unable to vote. This
time voting will be done on just one day. The Zimbabwe regime hopes to
address the problem of fewer poling stations by setting up three voting
centers all in one voting station. It will prove difficult if possible
at all for local monitors, planning to dispatch one monitor per station,
to observe proceedings at three voting centers simultaneously. The Zimbabwe
regime seems bent on introducing something new and confusing at each election.
An added problem of
fewer polling stations is that specifically in urban area’s, traditionally
opposition strongholds, fewer people will be able vote during the limited
times there is. This will cost the opposition votes.
Thirdly, the Zimbabwe
Electoral Supervisory Commission (ESC), which has historically proved
itself to be a toothless bull dog, will supervise elections and will supervise
the other bodies in terms of their conduct. But it is still weak and is
funded from a grant from the Ministry of Justice, which is also responsible
for seconding staff to the commission. Its independence has always been
doubted, let alone that of the ministry of justice. It does not have enough
funding, has limited resources and is easy to manipulate.
The Voter's roll,
which is supposed to be used and produced by the ZEC, was drawn up by
the Registrar General meaning that the ZEC, a supposedly important body
which the regime is boasting about as an indicator of compliance with
SADC norms, did not draw up the voters roll, nor did it run or oversee
the inspection process or draw and oversee the new election boundaries.
It hardly exists in real terms at all: in terms of having an independent
budget; a staff and programs of actions and work plans etc. Until two
weeks ago it is reported the ZEC didn’t even have one operational phone
nor had they ever set foot in their office, a hotel room in a big Harare
hotel.
Fifthly, the Ministry
of Justice, an interested party in the outcome of these elections, is
responsible for inviting local observers to register for accreditation
on condition they pay 100 US$ which translates to Z$100 000 (one hundred
thousand Zimbabwe dollars). Apart from this being a ridiculously large
sum which will limit local monitoring participation, this money is not
ploughed into the election bodies which are severely under funded. It
goes straight into Government coffers. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs
is responsible for inviting foreign observers. One wonders why Government
ministers are given this responsibility when you have the ZEC and the
ESC. So effectively, these government ministries still can determine who
to invite and who to accredit. So Mugabe and his cronies are setting the
rules in a game they are participants in. To make matters worse, he is
also the referee!
So nothing has really
changed in terms of election administration. This combined with the political
landscape where media access by the opposition is essentially non-existent,
partisan reporting by mass state owned print and electronic media, intimidation
still being a major factor in rural areas and even urban areas, the use
of state resources by ZANU PF bearing positive mileage for the ruling
party present a picture of more of the same as we have experienced before
in 2000 and 2002, as well as during the 1980ies. Nothing has really changed!
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