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Harare still to accredit by-election observers
ZimOnline
May 16, 2006

http://www.zimonline.co.za/headdetail.asp?ID=12106

HARARE - Zimbabwe election authorities last night said they had not accredited any single observer for a parliamentary by-election in the opposition stronghold of Budiriro constituency just four days away.

Zimbabwe Electoral Commission official Utoile Silaigwana said accreditation of observers started yesterday but no one had turned up at the commission's offices. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs that facilitates accreditation of observers from foreign countries had also not forwarded any names of outsiders wishing to observe the May 20 poll, he said.

"Currently no one has turned up for accreditation as an observer. We will of course accredit those who turn up but they (foreign observers) should come through the Foreign Affairs Ministry," Silaigwana told ZimOnline.

A spokesman of the main faction of opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) party Nelson Chamisa immediately condemned the absence of observers which he said would only make it even easier for the ruling ZANU PF party to "steal" the ballot in Budiriro which is in Harare and was held by the late MDC legislator, Gilbert Shoko.

Chamisa said: "We will have a complete ZANU PF system running the election … it will be manned by ZANU PF functionaries wearing different hats, some as polling officers and some as observers. This is why we are calling for a new constitution to rid the electoral process of this kind of abuse."

The splintered MDC that has held the Budiriro seat for the last six years is fielding two candidates, Emmanuel Chisvuure representing the main rump of the party led by founding president Morgan Tsvangirai and Gabriel Chaibva representing the smaller wing of the opposition party that is led by former student leader, Arthur Mutambara.

Jeremiah Bvirindi is standing for ZANU PF.

While President Robert Mugabe and ZANU PF have been accused of stealing elections before, political analysts say this time round the ruling might just scrap to victory in a fortress of opposition support not because of fraud but because divisions in the MDC might force some of their supporters to stay away from the poll.

Harare has since 2002 banned Western governments and pro-democracy groups from observing elections in Zimbabwe only allowing observers from friendly African and other developing nations as well as from Russia. - ZimOnline

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