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Massive Zim poll chaos
Mail & Guardian (SA)
February 21, 2008

http://www.mg.co.za/articlepage.aspx?area=/insight/insight__africa&articleid=332948

All three main candidates in Zimbab-we's presidential race launch their campaigns this Saturday, taking the race into top gear. But the excitement in the campaign contrasts sharply with the massive administrative chaos that is dogging preparations for the elections. Five weeks ahead of the March 29 date, the average voter still has to plough through a maze of confused messages coming from the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission (ZEC), the state body in charge of elections in Zimbabwe. This will be the first time Zimbabweans vote in four different elections at the same time and the sheer scale of the exercise has caused massive administrative bottlenecks that could lead to chaos at the polls on March 29. Each voter will get four different ballots, each a different colour, for elections for local government, the two houses of parliament and president. And with a new localised voters' roll, voters will be required to vote at prescribed voting stations. However, the ZEC has yet to publish a full list of the polling stations.

In general, information on the election has been slow to get out. ZEC spokesperson Utoile Silaigwana told the Mail & Guardian that the commission could not find enough staff to deploy as voter educators; this is not too surprising, given that the job only pays Z$10 million per day, the equivalent of R8 at the black market rate. The Zimbabwe Electoral Support Network (ZESN), the country's largest independent observer group, has issued a sharply critical report detailing serious deficiencies in preparations so far. ZESN says that two weeks after voter registration ended, the ZEC has yet to provide a final report on how many people are registered. This week, even as its own voter education campaign failed to get off the ground, government barred the ZESN from carrying out its activities. There are reports that Zanu PF is already taking advantage of the chaos to inflate its numbers. ZESN reports that in one urban constituency in Masvingo, in southern Zimbabwe, a Zanu PF candidate had 50 people registered as members of his family, all living at the same address, which turned out to be a hair salon.

Meanwhile, as the chaos spreads, there are still no accredited observers on the ground to blow the whistle. This week, government announced tough rules for foreign observer groups and journalists. Foreign observers and journalists will be allowed into the country, but they will need an "invitation letter" from the ministry of foreign affairs. The government did not say how such a letter could be obtained. In addition, journalists will need accreditation from the Media and Information Commission - which still regulates the media despite new legislation replacing it with a new body - before the ZEC will authorise them to cover the elections. Journalists and observers from outside Africa will be required to pay $300, while the fee for observers and journalists from the region has been set at $100. The terms are no easier for local observers, who will need their own letter of invitation from the ministry of justice.

A senior foreign affairs official said this week that the government was "still finalising" a list of foreign observers. He declined to give details of how international monitors would be chosen, but Justice Minister Patrick Chinamasa has said that the government will bar observers from countries that "do not have an open mind" and whose observers "sow the seeds of confusion, disunity and ultimately bloodshed". The foreign affairs official said invitations would likely be sent to SADC countries, SADC itself, the African Union and selected countries in the Caribbean and possibly Russia, China and India. Mugabe is unlikely to invite observers from Western governments, which claim he rigs elections and intimidates voters. In 2002, his expulsion of a top European Union (EU) envoy, Pierre Schorri - who he claimed was a spy and not the elections monitor the EU said he was - led to personal sanctions against Mugabe and members of his government.

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