Back to Index

This article participates on the following special index pages:

Growing concern over rigging
Stanley Kwenda, Financial Gazette
February 21, 2008

http://www.fingaz.co.zw/story.aspx?stid=2243

Zimbabwe civil society organisations are exploring possible ways of detecting vote rigging in next month's presidential, parliamentary and council elections.

The organisations, many of which prefer not to be named at this stage, say they might participate in a programme to come up with a parallel vote monitoring exercise in a bid to forestall electoral fraud. The organisations are weighing views on how Parallel Vote Tabulation (PVT) can best be implemented for the first time in Zimbabwe. PVT is an election-monitoring method for projecting voting results. It is best known in the United States as a "quick count".
Under the system, all information or election data comes from direct observation of the election process. Observers watch the voting and counting processes at specifically selected polling stations. They then record key information on standardised forms and report their findings, including vote count at polling stations, to a central data collection centre. This process can make independent monitoring of election results possible as the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission (ZEC) announces them.

Shupikai Mashereni, the ZEC director of public relations this week said the commission would not forbid any election monitoring done within the confines of the law. Said Mashereni: "If the exercise they are launching is about observing elections, it is allowed, but they have to come to us for accreditation. The law doesn't allow them to monitor the election process without being accredited and if they insist we just refer to the law and the law, as it is now, does not allow for that."

Well-placed sources within the civic society this week told The Financial Gazette that discussions on the possibility of implementing the system are still at a preliminary stage.

"There are discussions going on, though at this stage it's something still at its formative stages," said the source.

Since the deeply flawed Nigerian election last year, the way elections are conducted in African countries has dominated the news, and the post election violence in Kenya where more than 1000 people have so far been killed will draw more global attention to other elections to be conducted on the continent this year. Critics say the electoral field in Zimbabwe remains heavily skewed despite efforts by the Southern African Development Community to get ZANU-PF and MDC to agree on constitutional reforms.

According to sources, the election-monitoring pressure group, the Zimbabwe Election Support Network (ZESN), has been touted to lead the process, which will also involve a number of other civic organisations and church groups. ZESN co-ordinates election related activities through member organisations. But ZESN director, Rindai Chipfunde, said the organisation has a different mandate and will not commit itself to this cause.

"It will be good to have such a programme, but as ZESN we are not involved because we have a different mandate. It is also a very expensive exercise, which needs a lot of manpower, such as election monitors, observers and enumerators to tabulate results," she said. "We only use Sample Based Monitoring and communications. Once we have decided to use PVT, we will announce it publicly."

African countries such as Kenya have used PVT as an election-monitoring tool with support from organisations such as the Institute for Education in Democracy, National Council of Churches of Kenya, Catholic Justice and Peace Commission. In Malawi the programme has been spearheaded by the Church and Non-Governmental Organisations. A PVT is basically conducted to thwart electoral fraud, which is detected by identifying inconsistencies between official results and observer reports. Crisis in Zimbabwe Coordinator, Xolani Zitha, says it would be a good idea to have in place such a mechanism before elections.

"It's important to put in place such electoral fraud minimisation systems, we would welcome any such initiative," said Zitha.

The Zimbabwe Lawyers for Human Rights (ZLHR), which has embarked on a programme to ensure that all voters and would- be voters are accorded their right to vote says the media should crusade for such programmes to be put in place to minimise post election disputes.

"It's the duty of the media to help put in place such important electoral frameworks by highlighting their use in ensuring the dispensation of democracy," said Irene Petras, acting ZLHR director.

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.

TOP