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Election a ritual to legitimise Mugabe, says rights group
Wayne Mafaro and Simplicious Chirinda, ZimOnline
February 20, 2008

http://www.zimonline.co.za/Article.aspx?ArticleId=2741

Harare - Zimbabwe's March 29 elections will be held in a repressive environment marked by intimidation and organised violence, effectively reducing the polls to an exercise to simply validate President Robert Mugabe's controversial rule, a human rights group said on Tuesday.

Joining a growing chorus of disapproval and condemnation of political conditions in Zimbabwe ahead of elections on March 29, the Crisis in Zimbabwe Coalition (CZC) said because of an unfavourable environment, polls would neither serve the interest of democracy, the country nor the people.

"The 29 March 2008 elections will be held in a repressive environment replete with intimidation and organised violence and will simply become a regular self-legitimating ritual by the government of Zimbabwe," the CZC said in a report.

"In the view of the coalition, the elections will not serve the interests of democracy, the country or the people," the civic alliance added.

The CZC is an alliance of human and civic rights groups, churches, women's groups, the labour and student movements campaigning for a democratic settlement to Zimbabwe's political and economic crisis.

It said the beatings and torture of main opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai and other civic activists by the state security agents last March was indicative of a political environment that cannot produce both democratic processes and outcomes.

Draconian security and press laws - some inherited from previous colonial governments - were another hindrance to democratic polls, the civic coalition said.

Mugabe's government agreed to change some of the security and press laws during talks with the main opposition Movement for Democratic Change party that were brokered by South African President Thabo Mbeki. But human rights groups say the amendments were piecemeal and inadequate.

The CZC said with less than 40 days before the polls, independent newspapers such as the Daily News, Daily News on Sunday, The Tribune and The Weekly Times remain banned while Mugabe and his ruling ZANU PF party enjoy monopoly on coverage by state-run newspapers, radio and television.

"This continued assault on freedom of the press and expression remains an aberration to the administration of free and fair election," it said.

ZimOnline was unable to get an immediate comment on the civic coalition's report from the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission that is in charge of running elections and ensuring they are free and fair.

United States President George W Bush, who is on a trip to several African countries, has also questioned conditions for democratic polls in Zimbabwe, labeling Mugabe a "discredited dictator" who is guilty of gross human rights violations, stealing elections and ruining his country's once brilliant economy.

The Zimbabwe Catholic Church's human rights arm last week said hurried preparations for the polls coupled with inadequate voter education have greatly reduced prospects of a truly democratic vote.

Zimbabwe is in the grip of a debilitating economic crisis critics blame on misrule by Mugabe and that is seen in the world's highest inflation rate of more than 66 000 percent and shortages of foreign currency, food and fuel.

Analysts say truly democratic polls are a key requirement to any plan to pluck Zimbabwe out of a deepening crisis.

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