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By-elections - Excerpt from Weekly update 2003-12
Media Monitoring
Project Zimbabwe
March
24th - April 1st 2003
The Highfield
and Kuwadzana by-elections dominated media space during the week
under review. While the public and private media agreed that violence
was a cause for major concern in the electoral process, they differed
on who the perpetrators were. The public media accused the MDC of
fanning violence and used isolated incidents that broke out during
the previous week’s stay-away as examples.
Conversely, the private Press observed that violence against ordinary
civilians and those perceived to be opposition party supporters
by ZANU PF activists and security agents would render the elections
not free or fair. Unlike the public media, they also noted that
the combination of violence, vote-buying and the manipulation of
the voters’ roll by the Registrar-General, Tobaiwa Mudede, would
tilt the scales in favour of the ruling party. For example, The
Daily News (28/3) reported that the MDC had discovered that
about 19,000 "ghost" voters who did not
live in the two constituencies had been added to the voters’ roll.
The party’s director of elections, Remus Makuwaza, was quoted as
saying his party suspected these anomalies to be the main reason
why Mudede had delayed providing the opposition with copies of the
roll. In fact, Mudede only released the voters’ roll after the High
Court had ordered him to do so.
ZTV (28/03,
8pm) tried to dismiss these claims by presenting the RG’s office
as transparent in its conduct. It quoted Mudede as having said interested
members of the public could buy copies of the voters’ roll provided
they complied with conditions set by his office. However, these
conditions were not stated. Neither was Mudede challenged to explain
the alleged irregular inclusion of an extra 19,000 names, a fact
also reported by The Daily Mirror (24/3) and (28/03).
Suspicions that Mudede would use the roll to rig the two elections
was also aired in The Zimbabwe Independent’s comment
(28/03), which observed that ZANU PF was "incapable of
winning an election without the help of the Registrar-General’s
office". The Weekend Tribune (29/03) weighed
in with a call for impartiality in the RG’s office. It stated: "
… it is important that the Registrar-General’s office that
is running the elections be fully prepared and be fair to all contesting
parties. We do not want a sham of an election, one that is skewed
in favour of one political party." In its front-page
article, the paper reported that the MDC had even contemplated withdrawing
from the elections because of fears that the RG would facilitate
a ZANU PF victory. Indeed, these fears saw the MDC threatening mass
protests if the elections were rigged, The Daily News (24/03)
and The Financial Gazette (27/03). The Daily Mirror (24/03)
also carried the MDC’s threats, but deliberately distorted the remarks
made by one of its MPs, Tendai Biti. He said his party would "go
onto the streets" if the elections were rigged, a statement
The Daily Mirror interpreted to mean MDC promises more
violence, according to the article’s headline. The story also
sought to present the violence that broke out during the two-day
strike as having been sanctioned by the party.
In fact, the public media continued to milk the stay-away violence
and the MDC’s threat to protest to bolster the notion that it was
a violent party. For example, ZTV (28/03, 8pm) quoted Home Affairs
Minister Kembo Mohadi saying the MDC was "bussing people
from outside Harare to come and cause havoc. The train last night
brought in people from Bulawayo and picked up another group of people
from Gweru just to come and cause some mayhem." Without
providing any evidence, Mohadi added: "We are very much
aware that whether MDC wins these by-elections or loses they are
still going to cause violence". The Herald
(29/3) also unquestioningly quoted Mohadi making similar remarks.
It was not surprising the public media allowed Mohadi’s claims to
pass without scrutiny because they suited the media’s stance to
sell the MDC to the electorate as a violent party. In the same ZTV
bulletin, President Mugabe was quoted employing grossly inflammatory
rhetoric when he accused the MDC of fanning violence, describing
it as a "terrorist party" that "murders
wives and kills women", adding, "it should
thus be confined to the electoral scrap heap and I hope this happens
tomorrow and Sunday" His remarks were also carried
the in public Press the following day (29/3).
While the public media remained silent on ZANU PF candidates’ vote-buying
tactics through the use of scarce basic commodities, the private
Press diligently exposed this chicanery. For example, The Weekend
Tribune, Basic foods galore in Highfield, reported ZANU
PF candidates had brought scarce commodities to the two constituencies
to lure voters. The paper interviewed two political commentators,
Heneri Dzinotyiwei and John Makumbe who both agreed that food would
not yield support for ZANU PF.
Although the private Press was tenacious in exposing ZANU PF’s irregular
efforts to engineer election conditions that would favour its candidate,
it failed to fully explore the issue of polling stations and their
location. It was only on voting day that The Daily News (29/03)
revealed that polling stations had been increased in both constituencies.
The paper quoted MDC candidate for Kuwadzana Nelson Chamisa as saying,
"The number of polling stations has been increased to
facilitate the traffic of their (Zanu PF’s) ghost voters. The intention
is dubious." However, Chamisa did not clearly explain
how the increase would facilitate rigging. The Herald (28/3)
merely announced that a total of 19 polling stations had been established
for both constituencies without even notifying its readers that
this was an increase of six from the previous 13 that were used
during the presidential election. Similarly, ZBC, (ZTV, 28/03, 8pm
& Radio Zimbabwe, 29/03, 1pm) reported the issue as a mere announcement.
Besides the
Zimbabwe Election Support Network (ZESN)’s supplement in The
Daily News (26/3), no other media carried adequate information
on voter education. Also, no media fully investigated the boundaries
of the two constituencies particularly Kuwadzana, following speculation
that settlers at White Cliff farm, which is outside Kuwadzana, would
vote.
Meanwhile, the
extremes of perspective between the private and the public Press
were again highlighted in their coverage of the election days. While
The Sunday News & The Sunday Mail (30/03) and
The Herald (31/3) reported that the polls were conducted
"without incident" and "ended
peacefully", The Standard (30/3) and The
Daily News (31/03) observed otherwise. The Standard
reported that ZANU PF youths "ran amok trying to intimidate
voters and to influence the poll result". It also alleged
that the police "watched helplessly" as
ZANU PF supporters held gatherings near polling stations where "voters
were being invited … to register for scarce food commodities such
as mealie-meal which could be seen piled up nearby". The
Daily News (31/03) and (1/04) corroborated The Standard’s
report.
There were also
conflicting reports on voter turn-out. While The Sunday
Mail reported, Huge voter turn out in Highfield, Kuwadzana
by-elections, The Sunday Mirror led with, Low turn-out
mars decisive by-elections. Notably, both papers based their
reports on the same statistics of the number of people who had voted
by 7pm on Saturday, figures which represented a mediocre response
at best.
ZTV (29/3) also
confused its audiences on the turn-out on the first day of the election.
While its 6pm bulletin reported that voting in Kuwadzana began at
a "slow pace", it later reported, in its
8pm bulletin, that, "when polling started at 7 o’clock
in the morning in Kuwadzana, there was a large turnout of voters,
the biggest queue of 350 voters was reported at Kuwadzana district
office."
When it emerged
that the MDC had won the elections, the public media downplayed
the newsworthiness of the opposition’s victory. For example, ZTV
(31/03) carried the results as item five out of 11 news pieces in
its 6pm bulletins. And in its 8pm bulletin, the station led with
a review of a previous day’s soccer match between Zimbabwe and soccer
minnows Seychelles. The story was accorded about 10 minutes. It
was only after the soccer story and a short break, that ZTV then
announced the results in a two-minute report. The trend was not
different in the public Press. The Herald (01/03)
and Chronicle (01/03) reported that results showed that ZANU
PF "was consistent by maintaining its support base while
that of MDC fluctuated". While The Herald led
with the story, the Chronicle placed it on page two preferring
to lead with an unsubstantiated article, MDC’s security agents
revolt. The papers also quoted Chinotimba as saying, "Zanu
PF supporters were on Sunday threatened by Glen View MDC MP Paul
Madzore who moved around polling stations wielding a pistol."
Notably, it was the same papers that reported the elections
were peaceful.
In announcing the results, The Daily News (1/4) reported
that the MDC had managed to retain the two Harare seats "despite
massive intimidation by pro-Zanu PF militias in the run-up to the
polls." According to the report, both Chinotimba and
the winning MDC candidate Mungofa acknowledged that the elections
had not been free and fair.
The Daily
Mirror (01/03) comment expressed surprise that MDC candidates
accepted the results "despite the fact that the MDC had
made claims to the international world that the elections had been
rigged before they were held", adding that "Zanu
PF candidates, Joseph Chinotimba and David Mutasa must be commended
for accepting by-election results." Surprisingly however,
its lead story contradicted this position, reporting that Chinotimba
had refused to accept the results and had "briefly addressed
his supporters outside Cecil (sic) Jennings Hall who in turn let
volleys of stones at the celebrating MDC supporters …"
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