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Election alert No. 3 - Preliminary observations on election processes in Harare
Zimbabwe Lawyers for Human Rights (ZLHR)
March 29, 2008

Zimbabwe Lawyers for Human Rights (ZLHR) is gravely concerned about the election management process following observations in the first half of Election Day. A team of ZLHR accredited observers spent the morning of 29 March 2008 visiting several polling stations in pre-dominantly high-density neighbourhoods in and around Harare including Mbare, Highfields, Budiriro, Kuwadzana, Dzivarasekwa and Glen View. This team made several observations which raise credible fears that the ability of voters to fully express their democratic rights is being unconstitutionally restricted.

In all of the polling stations visited, there was a heavy police presence both at the gates entering polling stations as well as inside the polling stations themselves. This presence has been recently authorised through presidential decree, ostensibly to assist those who are unable to vote due to disability, illiteracy, amongst other reasons. However it seems to have had the effect of intimidating voters waiting to cast their ballots.

ZLHR observers reported the presence of armed police in polling stations in Gwanda. This appears to be a strategy in conjunction with other armed services, such as the army in Gweru, to further intimidate voters.

The team noted that there were unacceptably long queues at most of the polling stations and late opening thereof in the first few hours of voting due to a critical shortage of Zimbabwe Electoral Commission (ZEC) staff. This resulted in voters being shuttled from one queue to another before finally being able to cast their ballot. ZLHR fears that this shortcoming may have resulted in a large number of voters abandoning the queues from frustration and the agitation caused by such delays. We note, however, that those who did manage to cast their ballots were positive and excited about having succeeded in exercising their right to vote.

One of the most disconcerting issues was the continued and wide-spread disenfranchisement of Zimbabwe citizens from the voting process, as ZLHR predicted in its Pre-Election Statement.

Voters were turned away when they failed to produce renunciation of citizenship certificates in addition to their national identity document. This flies in the face of established and continuously re-affirmed precedent which categorically states that persons born in Zimbabwe are citizens by birth - a position clearly articulated in the Zimbabwean Constitution and supported by the courts and Parliament - and do not need to renounce an entitlement to a potential foreign citizenship (on the basis of ancestry) which they have never claimed.

At each of the polling stations which availed their statistics, so-called "aliens" had been denied their right to vote. For example, by 10:00hrs in Kuwadzana, Ward 37, thirteen people had been denied their right based on the decision by electoral officers that they were aliens, whilst at another polling station 50 of 250 people were turned away.

The electoral authorities continuously ignore the clear precedents set by the Supreme Court relating to citizenship laws. This amounts to gross contempt of court and therefore a particularly serious violation of the rule of law concept and the fundamental rights of the affected persons.

ZLHR calls upon the ZEC to take immediate measures to ensure that all voters have the ability to exercise their right to vote, which include:

• Ensuring that police officers play a minimal and less visible role in the voting process to stop the intimidation of voters;
• Ensuring that all persons on the voters' roll who produce their national identity card or passport be allowed to cast their ballot without impediment such as having to produce the renunciation of citizenship certificates; and
• Urging all persons who have been refused the right to vote due to the tenuous demand that they produce renunciation of citizenship certificates to return immediately to their polling station and insist on casting their vote, seeking legal assistance where necessary.

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