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Election countdown
Media Monitoring Project of Zimbabwe (MMPZ)
Weekly Media Update 2006-40
Monday October 2^nd – Sunday October 8^th 2006

LIKE the previous week, the media maintained their indifferent coverage of local government polls and the Chikomba and Rushinga by-elections.

The government media carried 35 stories on the matter: ZBH (29) and government papers (six). However, this did not translate into informed analysis of the electoral process.

For example, these media’s stories largely failed to inform their audiences about the electoral framework under which the Chikomba and Rushinga by-elections and the 20 rural district council ward polls were conducted. Neither did they give informed follow-ups on the electoral authorities’ preparations for the remaining local government polls scheduled for this month-end.

In fact, all six stories carried by the official Press on elections focused on ZANU PF campaigns and none discussed the mechanics governing the polls or on the opposition’s preparations.

But while the official papers ignored the MDC campaigns and their concerns on the conduct of the elections, they carried several stories on the Zambian elections, which they used to vilify the opposition as bad losers.

The pattern was the same on ZBH.

In open breach of the Broadcasting Services Act, which compels the state broadcaster to give "reasonable" access to all contesting parties during elections, ZBH only covered ZANU PF campaigns in all its six stories on the subject. In addition, it carried 10 other stories on various donations of computers, agricultural inputs and equipment by senior government officials, including President Mugabe, which promoted ZANU PF ahead of the polls.

None of this was interpreted as vote-buying.

Such a professionally docile manner also manifested itself in The Herald (2/10), which reported Air Force of Zimbabwe Commander Perence Shiri as having campaigned for "ZANU PF" during a prize-giving day at Kwenda High School in Hwedza at which he made monetary donations.

The paper did not question the timing of the donation or his active involvement in political campaigns as a soldier. However, the next day the paper retracted the story saying that although Shiri had called on the electorate to "vote wisely" for a party that "had a history and is tried and tested", he had not mentioned any party by name. Notably, ruling party officials have previously used similar language when campaigning for ZANU PF.

Government papers did not report on the administration of elections except carrying seven Zimbabwe Election Commission (ZEC) adverts on the polls. Of these, six were on the results of the nomination courts while one, which appeared on the day of the elections, was on the location of polling stations for Rushinga and Chikomba polls.

While ZBH seems to have covered the elections more widely as mirrored in Fig 1, their reports remained basically uninformative and grossly biased. 

Fig. 1 The electronic media’s coverage of electoral issues

For instance, all its reports on the administration of elections were mere regurgitations of ZEC’s pronouncements on its "smooth" electoral preparations or the announcement of the Chikomba and Rushinga election results, won by ZANU PF. There was no attempt to independently verify the adequacy of the planning, particularly in view of allegations by the Zimbabwe Election Support Network (ZESN) of poor preparations (Studio 7 5/10). The broadcaster limited itself to just airing several ZEC adverts urging people to vote and what identification particulars they needed to be able to elect their council and parliamentary representatives.

The government media’s unprofessional coverage of the polls was reflected by their sourcing pattern as captured in Fig 2 and 3.

Fig. 2 Voice distribution in the government Press

Fig. 3 Voice distribution on ZBH

Notably, government officials used ‘national’ events to campaign for the ruling party. In addition, the broadcaster heavily depended on handouts from the electoral authorities for its coverage.

The private media hardly performed any better.

They devoted just 10 stories to the elections, seven of which appeared in private papers and three in the private electronic media.

Even then, four of the stories published in the Mirror stable were largely replicas of stories appearing in the government media and barely subjected the electoral process to any scrutiny. Three of these either vilified the opposition or passively endorsed the electoral environment. Only one quoted both ZANU PF and the MDC fancying their chances of winning the polls.

The paper also carried five voter-education adverts inserted by the ZEC.

In contrast, almost all the stories Studio 7 (5/10) and the online agency Zimdaily.com (6/10) carried on the elections were restricted to exposing electoral violence allegedly perpetrated against the opposition by ruling party supporters and state security agents, recording eight incidents as shown in Fig. 4. They included Studio 7’s coverage of a report by ZESN revealing poor electoral preparations and "discriminatory" new nomination regulations it claimed had disadvantaged the opposition in the Chikomba and Rushinga elections.

The government media ignored these issues. They only alluded to the issue when The Sunday Mail (8/10), Radio Zimbabwe and ZTV (8/10, 6pm) reported MDC losing candidate for Rushinga Kudakwashe Chideya refusing to endorse the result because of "several" electoral irregularities. However, they did not provide details on what these were.

Fig. 4 The private electronic media’s coverage of the elections

However, The Standard reported on more electoral irregularities in two of the three stories it carried on the forthcoming council polls. One exposed how senior ruling party officials had forced the Tsholotsho nomination court to "extend its sitting by five hours" to ensure the nomination of one of its candidates, whose papers had been rejected by electoral authorities while the other was on the MDC’s intention to legally challenge the disqualification of 400 of their candidates during the nomination process.

The remainder exposed in-house fighting in ZANU PF, which resulted in it fielding two sets of candidates in all Kadoma’s wards.

The Gazette and Independent ignored the elections.

The private Press’ attempts to balance its coverage were mirrored by its voice distribution. See Fig 5.

Fig. 5 Voice distribution in private papers

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