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Fears of flawed poll mount
Caiphas Chimhete, Vusumuzi Sifile & Nqobani Ndlovu, The Standard (Zimbabwe)
March 02, 2008

ZANU PF has stepped up violence and intimidation against opposition supporters ahead of this month's polls, virtually shutting out the possibility of a free and fair election, The Standard can report.

Reports of violence, threats by security chiefs against legitimate protest and directives on how uniformed officers should vote all disregard the SADC guidelines on how elections should be conducted.

Zanu PF's complaints to the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission (ZEC) on remarks made by an opposition spokesman about lessons from Kenya compound an already flawed process. The Standard has also learnt that the election management body's limited capacity to publicize constituency boundaries, the list of candidates, and the wards in which voting will take place will conspire to create a highly uneven electoral field.

Since the beginning of the year, the opposition MDC says it has recorded over 100 cases of torture, assault and intimidation of its supporters by State security forces and Zanu PF youth militia.

MDC spokesperson Nelson Chamisa said unless Zanu PF and state security forces stopped this culture of violence, the elections would result in another disputed outcome.

"This on-going violence undermines the credibility of the whole electoral process," he said. "Our supporters have been running away from the rural areas, especially over the past few weeks."

Adding to the concerns over a flawed electoral process, the ZEC has said it will not give the date the results of the 29 March poll will be announced on because it feared that might spark post-election violence.

Analysts have said there are fears that if the elections were rigged - as they believe is widely suspected by opposition parties and civic groups to be the case - there might be a "Kenya-style" spontaneous outbreak of violence.

Police Commissioner-General Augustine Chihuri has threatened the use of firearms to quell protests.

But Professor Eldred Masunungure of the Mass Public Opinion Institute (MPOI) said the effect of the threat by ZEC to the Zimbabwe Election Support Network over voter education, when ZEC does not have the capacity to educate voters, "bodes very poorly" for the freeness and fairness of the elections. MPOI's survey, he said, had found that 75% of the people surveyed had not received any voter education from the ZEC.

He said police threats against legitimate protest limited the space for competition and was a "damnation on the freeness and fairness of the polls and the conduct of the electoral process".

On the complaint by Patrick Chinamasa to the ZEC over statements by the opposition MDC spokesman Nelson Chamisa on the consequences of electoral fraud, Masunungure believes these could be a signal for a major clampdown on opposition forces and civil society organisations deemed to be appendages of the opposition.

"It is a pretext of something being planned and the effect of curbing freedom of expression will have a bearing on the freeness and fairness of the elections," he said.

Shupikai Mashereni, the ZEC spokesperson, last week said the commission would not announce a date when the results would be finalized and released.

"This is because we don't want to be accused of rigging elections if we release the results earlier or later than the estimated date.

"Doing so might also spark post-election violence, similar to that experienced in Kenya should the results not favor the majority."

The ZEC, which took more than a week to release the official list of successful election candidates, has dismissed claims it faces serious logistical problems.

Noel Kututwa, the chairperson of the ZESN described as "dangerous and intimidatory" utterances by service chiefs. "It's a coup, basically. It is not the role of the police or army to issue statements like that. They are there basically to defend the country and uphold the Constitution. Their allegiance is to the country and not to individuals."

Prisons chief Ret Major-General Paradzayi Zimondi said he would not salute Morgan Tsvangirai or Simba Makoni should they win on March 29.

The pronouncements, Kututwa said, did not give civil society the impression that Zimbabwe will have a free and fair election. "There's just no confidence."

Observers say the same confusion encountered at nomination courts could spill into the elections.

Since 2000 Zanu PF has been accused of stealing elections when it faced a strong challenge from the MDC.

Police Commissioner-General Augustine Chihuri said the police, known for their violent suppression of anti-government protests, would not hesitate to use force, including firearms, against "mischief makers" during the election period.

President Robert Mugabe has in the past pledged to "bash" any anti-government protesters.

Chamisa said the violence was countrywide, citing reports from the Midlands and Banket in Mashonaland West.

Two weeks ago more than 10 MDC officials were detained for organizing a rally at Renco Mine in Masvingo South. In Mbare, two MDC members were beaten up and detained briefly at Stodart Police Station.

Three days before the MDC 2008 campaign launch in Mutare, said the report, military police picked up three people queuing at a city bank, accusing them of discussing politics. They were beaten up and later released.

None of the incidents could be independently confirmed.

The Crisis Coalition in Zimbabwe (CCZ) said state-sponsored attacks on opposition members and civil society indicated a political environment that could not produce a democratic electoral outcome.

"In this regard, the 29 March 2008 elections will be held in a repressive environment replete with intimidation and organized violence and will simply become a regular self-legitimating ritual by the government of Zimbabwe," said CCZ spokesperson McDonald Lewanika.

He urged Zanu PF to dismantle the infrastructure of violence such as the youth militia and make a political commitment to stop violence.

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