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Print and Electronic Daily Media Update #12
Media Monitoring Project Zimbabwe
April 02, 2005

1. Daily Print Media Update: Saturday April 2nd 2005

a. Announcement of the results
BOTH The Herald and The Daily Mirror celebrated the outcome of the parliamentary election in their announcements of the results. The Herald carried a main story on the topic and four others featuring what it considered to be special highlights, while the Mirror had two reports on the outcome. All their reports highlighted the fact that ZANU PF was in a commanding lead.

In one of its reports, The Herald celebrated the fact that Sabina Mugabe together with her sons Leo Mugabe and Patrick Zhuwawo had made parliamentary history in Zimbabwe and Southern Africa by becoming the only mother to sit in parliament with her two sons. It also acknowledged Vice-President Joyce Mujuru's "resounding victory" and quoted a councillor saying there was "no way that [Mujuru] could have lost because of her courage and commitment to her electorate".

Although it quoted two losing MDC candidates, including its representative in Sanyati, Traner Ruzvidzo, complaining about the uneven playing field, the paper made no attempt to follow up on his concerns. Instead, it tried to pre-empt MDC's reaction to the results by presenting them as acceptable, saying that contrary to perceptions that an MDC victory would see ZANU PF youths react violently, the ruling party leadership had accepted the results in Bulawayo. It then carried six other stories, which sought to endorse the electoral process and the outcome, which it narrowly viewed as indicating the demise of the MDC. For example, it quoted an analyst, Joseph Kurebwa contending that the MDC, which had been "overrated" in the past five years was "fast sliding into a minority party" a situation he claimed would push the party into "oblivion". The Herald's editorial comment endorsed the results and attacked the MDC for crying foul and trying to arrange meetings with the European Union instead of accepting the results. It attributed the opposition loss to its failure to penetrate rural areas "preferring to grandstand on the world stage".

Preliminary reports from foreign observers such as the SADC Observer Mission and Mozambican government observers were also reported adding weight to the legitimacy of the outcome. Concerns raised by organisations such as the Zimbabwe Election Support Network (ZESN) that there was lack of adequate voter education on constituency boundaries, were buried inside the paper. No comment was sought from the opposition's leadership on the outcome. In fact, its reluctance to give space to the MDC was reflected in its sourcing pattern. It quoted two MDC voices and featured ZANU PF candidates 14 times.

The Daily Mirror (2/4) was equally celebratory over ZANU PF's victory, which it had predicted in yesterday's issue. The paper carried three stories, which endorsed the outcome and called on the MDC to accept the results instead of making "frivolous excuses for losing an election". No due consideration was given to the concerns the opposition party had raised over the electoral framework. It even dismissed out of hand MDC's concerns that the ink used during voting could easily be washed off. Its attempts to endorse the election resulted in the paper emphasising ZESN's praise of the relatively peaceful environment that characterised the election period at the expense of the independent organisation's general concerns over the conduct of the election. However, unlike the government Press, The Daily Mirror reported on the press conference addressed by MDC president Morgan Tsvangirai, in which he alleged that the elections were rigged and called on the people to "defend their vote".

2. Monitored output for Saturday, April 1st 2005

a. Election results follow-up
ALL but two of the 34 stories on the election outcome carried on ZBH's stations (Power FM [14], Radio Zimbabwe [8] and ZTV [12]) celebrated ZANU PF's victory and endorsed the elections. The other two reports were on the press conference addressed by MDC leader Morgan Tsvangirai in which he said his party did not accept the results. These were on ZTV's bulletins. Both Power FM and Radio Zimbabwe ignored the matter.

In contrast, President Mugabe's conference was headline news across all ZBH stations. ZTV actually accorded the event four minutes in its 8pm bulletin as compared to one minute and 20 seconds Tsvangirai received in the same bulletin. President Mugabe was quoted saying he was prepared to work with the MDC and called on the opposition party to accept the results and not look for any " excuses, which might complicate relations," adding that mass action is "not a prerogative of one party". His remarks were allowed to pass without scrutiny. Instead, Power FM went on to quote two of ZBH's favourite analysts George Zimbizi and Joseph Kurebwa legitimising the poll.

Zimbabwe's ambassador to South Africa, Simon Khaya Moyo was also reported endorsing the election saying the results showed that "Britain and its puppets, the MDC, are dead and buried." The opposition's worries over the uneven playing field, particularly Tsvangirai's concerns over the independence of the electoral commission and the role of chiefs, among other issues, were not discussed. Instead, ZTV sought to dismiss such issues saying most election observers had endorsed the poll as "free and fair."

Head of the South African government observer mission Membathisi Mdladlana was then quoted saying the electoral institutions had conducted the elections "smoothly and efficiently". No attempt was made to reconcile Mdladlana's statements with the fact that more than 100,000 potential voters were turned away, or ZTV's report that results of the last five constituencies had been delayed because of "inaccessibility to some areas," which had resulted in the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission (ZEC) using helicopters to reach the areas such as Binga. The reporter did not question why ZEC had not made adequate arrangements earlier, especially since the commission had assured the nation that all was set for the poll.

While ZBH used regional observer missions' positive reports to endorse the elections, it suffocated the fact that government had handpicked almost all observer missions in the country and that Mdladlana himself endorsed the poll on his arrival, before his team had even assessed the situation. The police were also quoted commending the poll saying, "the outcome of these elections is the collective choice of all Zimbabweans..."

Conversely, while reporting ZANU PF celebrations in some parts of Harare, Studio 7 gave more space to the MDC's concerns in its five stories on the elections. The station quoted Tsvangirai saying the MDC was collecting evidence of rigging and would announce the results the next day. Tsvangirai also said the Delimitation Commission had taken away three seats from the MDC strongholds of Harare, Bulawayo and Matabeleland South. He also alleged that ZANU PF had used food as a political tool, a claim dismissed by Mdladlana on ZTV, saying his team had no evidence to substantiate such allegations.

MDC secretary-general Welshman Ncube added that his party had rejected the poll outcome for several reasons, including "the fact that this election was run by the CIO and ZANU PF functionaries... [that] about 40% of the [polling agents in] rural constituencies were driven away and were not allowed into the polling stations...The figures of the results themselves given by ZEC don't make sense [as] they don't match in at least 32 constituencies". Ncube cited Manyame constituency as an example. He noted that the ZEC had initially announced that 14,812 people had voted by close of polling but later gave a total of 23,706 when it announced the results. Asked Ncube: "Where did the 8,948 come from?" ZBH ignored the issue.

It also ignored USA State Department spokesman, Richard Boucher's remarks that there are signs that the "election was seriously tainted" as evidenced by "information from ZEC [showing] that as many as 10% of voters were turned away from polling stations..." This only appeared on Studio 7. The private station also tried to analyse the ZANU PF victory in Harare South, a perceived MDC stronghold. It noted that "illegal settlements" that government allowed to sprout in the area could have tilted the vote in favour of the ruling party. However, Studio 7 was guilty of not balancing its stories with comments from both sides of the political divide. The station largely depended on the MDC for comment to the exclusion of other pertinent sources as shown in Fig. 1 here.

Fig.1 Voice distribution on ZBH and Studio 7

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