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Election aftermath
Media Monitoring Project Zimbabwe
Extracted from Weekly Media Update 2003-35
Monday 1st - Sunday 7th September 2003

Any doubts that the government control of ZIMPAPERS and ZBC has transformed those media houses into government mouthpieces were cleared by the manner they handled the urban council elections and parliamentary by-election , results. They downplayed the victory of the MDC despite clear figures showing that the opposition had trounced ZANU PF in all but one major town, where elections took place. In fact, they narrowly interpreted voter apathy, which generally marred the elections, to mean that the opposition was losing ground in the urban areas. Even ZANU PF officials’ one-sided analyses of the results were relayed without any intelligent scrutiny.

In contrast, the private media gave the MDC victory the prominence it deserved although they also acknowledged that few registered voters had cast their ballots. However, unlike the government-controlled media, they tried to give several reasons for the voter apathy by seeking comments from independent commentators.

This division between the government-controlled media and the private media in their coverage of the elections was eloquently summed up by The Herald (1/9), Voting ends peacefully, and The Daily News (1/9), Vote-buying in polls. While The Herald played down the reported incidents of violence and irregularities in the elections, The Daily News reported that voters in Bulawayo and Mutare had "alleged that some ZANU PF officials maintained a presence at several polling stations and were giving out cash and promising handouts of maize if the ruling party won the elections".

The paper also reported on other anomalies that marred the elections but failed to inform its readers whether some MDC members, who included the wife of the party’s leader, Morgan Tsvangirai, had voted since their names were reportedly missing from the voters’ roll. In fact, no media fully explored the matter although The Daily News on Sunday (31/8) carried a picture of Tsvangirai and his wife at the Strathaven polling station and claimed that it’s "where they cast their votes".

The Herald (1/9) simply dismissed claims of anomalies saying, "It is quite common to have allegations of irregularities, and untrue and exaggerated reports of intimidation or violence coming from parties which know for certain that they are losing and will do anything to find a scapegoat".

When preliminary results showed that the paper had missed the mark in its forecast of the outcome, it then tried to down play ZANU PF’s embarrassing defeat by giving emphasis to the results of areas where the ruling party won. The paper’s (2/9) article, Zanu-PF retains Makonde seat as MDC wins Harare Central, is an example. Besides lacking clarity on the exact number of seats the opposition had won in towns where it emerged victorious, the article tried to dilute the emphatic victory of the MDC by giving the impression that the opposition party already had control of cities such as Bulawayo even before the elections. It reported that the opposition party had "retained control" of the city when in actual fact ZANU PF was in charge of the city by virtue of having more councillors than the MDC before the elections.

Similarly, the Chronicle of the same day also gave prominence to results where ZANU PF triumphed, such as Kwekwe and Shurugwi and like The Herald, stifled the fact that preliminary results showed that the MDC was leading. ZBC (1/9, 8pm) adopted a similar stance. ZTV even buried the preliminary results deep in its bulletin and preferred leading with the central bank’s ongoing feeble attempts to alleviate the cash shortages.

However, the private media were not hypocritical and duly acknowledged the MDC victory. For example The Daily News (2/9) lead story, MDC routs ZANU PF, unequivocally reported that the MDC had taken "a strong lead in urban council elections" by winning 96 seats to ZANU PF’s 70 as counting continued. It also noted that Kwekwe was now the only major town with a ZANU PF executive mayor. The MDC elections director, Remus Makuwaza, was quoted as saying the results showed that "people have … confidence in the MDC’s ability to govern". The paper (3/9) further quoted political scientist, Eldred Musunungure, as having said, "apart from reaffirming the MDC as a crucial piece on the political chessboard, the results should prod ZANU PF back to the negotiating table". Its comment described the MDC’s victory as "a vote of no confidence in the ruling party by the people who are most affected by Zimbabwe’s worst economic crisis since independence in 1980".

The same issue of the paper also quoted Tsvangirai demystifying the government-controlled media’s notion that voter apathy signified the dwindling urban support for the MDC. He attributed the low voter turnout to the electorate’s loss of faith in elections because of the inherent irregularities in the Zimbabwean electoral system. Political analyst, Takura Zhangazha, raised similar views on Studio 7 (2/9). The private station (1/9) also quoted John Makumbe attributing low voter turn out to "poor preparation by election officials, violence here and there, intimidation and harassment of voters".

Nevertheless, the government-controlled media would not relent in their simplistic analysis of the causes of apathy. For instance, The Herald (3/9) observed that the low turn out "dramatises the disillusionment of the urban voters with the MDC’s failure to deliver". In a feature article in the same issue, the paper’s Lovemore Chikova claimed that the Harare Central and Makonde polls "have confirmed the continued decline in urban support for the opposition", adding that apathy in Harare Central "has raised questions on the [opposition] party’s ability to sustain interest from voters". This line of argument also found currency in The Financial Gazette (4/9) article, Hollow poll victory for MDC? – Opposition accused of failing to inspire voters. However, there was no explanation as to why it was only the responsibility of the MDC to court voters and not that of ZANU PF as well.

Instead, The Sunday Mail (7/9) capitalised on the issue and claimed that the MDC candidate for Harare Central Murisi Zwizwai "will indeed go into parliament with a questionable mandate" because he had won in an election marred by low voter turn out. To further discredit the MDC victory, the Chronicle (5/9) said the opposition had benefited "from the protest vote, hence its continued wish to have sanctions hovering on all of us". The Herald (3/9), Punishing the innocent, setting Barabbas free? even went further and used the circumstances surrounding the crucifixion of Jesus to chide urban voters for failing to realise that the MDC and not ZANU PF was responsible for their suffering.

However, Information Minister Jonathan Moyo seemed to disagree. He was quoted on ZTV and 3FM (03/09, 8pm) as saying, "Clearly we need to be as close to the people in urban areas as we are in the rural areas…You can not in all earnest expect people to be happy when they are spending time queuing for cash … basic commodities that they can not get and when they get them they are not at affordable prices…"
But after acknowledging his party’s shortcomings, Moyo then shifted blame: "But we know who is responsible for that. Not only should we remind people about the causes of this but we should provide solutions for this. This was a rude wake up call."

The Herald (3/9) also carried a similar story and quoted Moyo manipulating the Kariba results, which saw the MDC white candidate for the town, John Houghton, emerge victorious, to give the impression that Zimbabwe was democratic. He claimed that the results confirmed "for the umpteenth time that Zimbabwe is a vibrant democracy with no equivalent in the white Commonwealth … There is no way you can get a black mayor in Sydney or Canberra", and in a rare moment of candour added that "the writing was on the wall" for ZANU PF. Just like on ZTV, he then blamed the MDC for the problems afflicting the country.

However, The Zimbabwe Independent (5/9) pointed out that it was a "shocking abdication of responsibility by government" to accuse the opposition for causing problems the country was facing saying "if the electorate held the MDC responsible they would have voted for Zanu PF". It further observed that it was "remarkable … that despite such obvious electoral manipulation and political intimidation the ruling party performed so badly" and "has effectively been banished from Zimbabwe’s key towns". The Standard (7/9) agreed and noted that ZANU PF even lost in some areas where it perpetrated violence.

Meanwhile, there seemed to be confusion within the information department of ZANU PF in the interpretation of the results. While Moyo seemingly acknowledged the defeat of the ruling party, his boss, Nathan Shamuyarira, thought otherwise. Shamuyarira was quoted on ZTV and 3FM (03/09, 8pm) claiming that the overall result was "not disappointing to ZANU PF" as the party had made "in roads" into the MDC stronghold. ZANU PF external affairs secretary, Didymus Mutasa, was quoted on Studio 7 (02/09) equally dismissing the defeat saying, "ZANU PF was not surprised by the election results. Rural folk like ZANU PF while urbanities like MDC".

However, in spite of ZANU PF’s pretence that it was not bothered by the results, SW Radio Africa (04/09) quoted an MDC official alleging that the ruling party supporters were " on a retribution campaign against the MDC in Ruwa, Marondera, Kwekwe, Gweru and Mutare… (and that) the MDC supporters in Gweru and Mutare were arrested after the announcement of result and were still in police cells." Further, MDC councillor for Norton, Jonathan Banda, alleged that ZANU PF supporters had destroyed 11 houses belonging to MDC candidates in Norton. However, there was no police confirmation of these claims.

In fact, such instances were a continuation of violence, which characterised the pre-poll period. Surprisingly, despite such cases the US seemed to endorse the outcome saying there was "a degree of improvement" in the conduct of the elections, The Daily News (3/9) and Studio 7 (3/9).

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