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How the elections were rigged - MDC report on March 2005 parliamentary elections
Movement for Democratic Change (MDC)
April 12, 2005

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The March 2005 parliamentary elections cannot be judged to be free and fair nor can they be deemed an accurate reflection of the will of the Zimbabwean people. The distorted nature of the pre-election playing field and the failure to address core democratic deficits, in the context of both the legal and administrative framework, and the political environment, precluded a free and fair election from the very beginning.

The determination of the Zanu PF government to manipulate the electoral process and to eschew the need to ensure adequate levels of transparency and fairness led to them breaching their own rules on polling day. They were determined to have a system in place with sufficient capacity to enable them to rig the ballot in the event that initial voting trends indicated an MDC victory.

The MDC participated in the elections under protest. More than 133,000 voters attempted to participate on election day but were turned away. Unknown thousands of voters were either added or subtracted from vote tallies in 72 of 120 constituencies where figures were made available by the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission (ZEC). We still have received no explanation from the ZEC for the serious inconsistencies in the ZEC’s own figures.

• ZEC must supply the polling station returns (Form V11) for independent audit.
• ZEC must supply a copy of the voters roll in electronic format.

MDC agreed to participate on the basis that the prevailing view amongst our structures and supporters on the ground was in favour of participation. The issue of our participation, however, does not confer legitimacy on the result.

If the MDC had won the elections, and secured a parliamentary majority, it would have been a testament to the courage and determination of the people of Zimbabwe to overcome the nefarious obstacles deliberately placed by Mugabe and Zanu PF to frustrate their collective desire for a new beginning and a new Zimbabwe.

The electoral reforms introduced by the Zimbabwe Government were woefully inadequate and failed to ensure that Zimbabwe’s electoral framework and political environment adhered to the new democratic benchmarks encapsulated in the SADC Protocol On Guidelines and Principles Governing Democratic Elections.

This report provides compelling evidence to substantiate the MDC’s position that the elections cannot be judged free and fair.

Chapter Two exposes the fallacy of claims that the electoral process was managed and run by ‘impartial, all-inclusive, competent and accountable national electoral bodies’. Those who pronounce such claims site the role of the new ‘independent’ electoral commission.

The new Zimbabwe Electoral Commission (ZEC), as an institution, failed to demonstrate its independence. Its chair, Justice Chiweshe, was directly appointed by President Mugabe, without consultation, and failed to discharge his duties in an impartial manner. Moreover, the ZEC was established too late in the day to have any meaningful role in the management of the electoral process. By the time it was officially established most of its core duties, such as voter registration and the compilation of the voters’ roll, had already been carried out.

The elections were managed and run by the same institutions that presided over the wholesale rigging and subversion of the electoral process in the 2000 parliamentary elections and 2002 presidential elections. Nothing had changed.

It is important to note, however, that the MDC retains a degree of confidence in the ability of the four ZEC commissioners, appointed upon the recommendations of Parliament. We believe that their task has been made impossible by the Commission chair and the staff seconded to the Commission. Given the irregularities that have occurred, in particular the discrepancies in a large number of constituencies between voter turnout and final totals, the onus is now firmly on these commissioners to demonstrate their independence, fairness and integrity in unequivocal terms.

Chapter Three outlines how the administrative processes for the elections were manipulated to secure political advantage for the ruling party. The voter registration exercise was carried out in a discriminatory manner under the directions and guidance of the Registrar General who openly supports Zanu PF. Thousands of people in urban areas (especially the youth), perceived MDC strongholds, were disenfranchised through gratuitous proof of residency requirements. Hundreds of thousands of Zimbabwean citizens outside the country were denied their legitimate right to vote, while the notorious Citizenship of Zimbabwe Act prevented thousands of Zimbabweans, whose descendents came from other southern African countries, from registering to vote.

The voters’ roll used for the elections was a shambles. It was inaccurate and grossly inflated. The MDC was denied access to the electronic copy but was eventually given a hard copy. Data extrapolated from an audit of 10% of the roll indicated that there were over one million dead people on the roll. The names of MDC activists who have been killed were still on the voters’ roll. The names of thousands of people who have left the country in the past few years, and who were denied their moral right to vote, are still on the roll. This created tremendous capacity for ‘ballot stuffing’, especially when one considers that members of the military, the ruling party or the intelligence service (CIO) were in charge of a large number of polling stations.

The delineation of constituency boundaries by the Mugabe appointed Delimitation Commission resulted in Harare and Bulawayo losing two constituencies each. Three new constituencies were created in areas perceived to be pro-Zanu PF. The MDC had technically lost three seats before a single ballot had been cast.

The allocation and location of polling stations was again a clear attempt to boost the electoral chances of the ruling party. A disproportionate number of polling stations were allocated to rural areas compared to urban areas. Moreover, a number of polling stations were located at the homesteads of local headmen renowned for their support for the ruling party.

Chapter Four illustrates the extent to which voters were unable to access the wide variety of information necessary to make an informed choice at the ballot box. Legislative curbs on a free press, and a flagrant lack of equal access to the state controlled media, severely restricted the free flow of information and ideas to the electorate, especially in rural areas. In this context, the situation was worse than in the 2002 presidential poll.

Chapter Five describes the hostile political conditions on the ground, which remained prevalent throughout the campaign period, and details the extent to which the law enforcement agencies and traditional leaders were firmly harnessed to the campaign agenda of the ruling party.

MDC rallies and meetings continued to be banned under the Public Order and Security Act. Not a single Zanu PF rally was banned. While the MDC was obliged to comply with Section 24 of this Act and provide police with notification of rallies/meetings four days in advance, this did not apply to Zanu PF; it was free to hold public meetings and rallies without police notification or permission.

While political violence was lower compared to the 2000 and 2002 elections it still remained at unacceptable levels. For this election, however, Zanu PF did not really have much need to encourage its supporters to go out and beat the electorate into submission. Five years of terror and violence has had a severe psychological impact on the electorate, especially in rural areas. People fear retribution if they freely express their political preferences. This psychological impact enabled Zanu PF to engage in slightly more subtle techniques to coerce and intimidate the electorate, as this chapter clearly demonstrates.

Chapters Seven and Eight demonstrate the extent to which Zanu PF breached the very rules that it had introduced to improve the transparency and fairness of technical and administrative procedures on polling day. These two chapters also underline the abject failure of ZEC to demonstrate its independence from the ruling party. Numerous incidents were recorded in rural areas of local Zanu PF officials, headmen or CIO officials acting as ZEC representatives at polling stations. This would have had a massive negative impact on the voters at polling stations where this occurred. Chapter 8 in particular details the unaccountable gaps in certain constituencies between the turnout figures announced by ZEC and the final results announced by the same body hours later. These discrepancies were facilitated by the deliberate and systematic breaches of the Electoral Act during election day.

These discrepancies, along with many others, were reported to the various observer missions. The MDC remains deeply concerned that despite the weight of evidence available, the various observer missions invited by President Mugabe to observe the election process continue to claim that the MDC has no evidence to back up its allegations of electoral malpractice. As this report clearly demonstrates, this is not the case. Observer missions have been provided with evidence of numerous allegations of malpractice yet do not appear to have carried out full investigations.

We are concerned that they have spent too much time in urban areas and not sufficient time in rural areas, where most irregularities occurred.

The MDC received assurances from all the observer missions that they would conduct their duties in a fair, impartial and transparent manner. We were assured that their final reports would be based on an objective assessment and analysis of the situation on the ground.

Comments during the election period by senior South African officials mandated to observe the elections, raised suspicions that South Africa, from the very beginning, was bent on declaring the results a ‘legitimate expression of the will of the people’, regardless of the scale and extent to which the liberation principle of one person, one vote was subverted.

We are therefore not surprised that the SA Observer team was the first to declare the elections free and fair.

It is the MDC’s view that the findings in this report demonstrate in unequivocal terms that the huge irregularities that occurred in both the pre-election period and on polling day itself, make it impossible to judge the elections as free and fair.

The will of the people has not prevailed. This is a serious setback for the democratization process in Zimbabwe and provides further confirmation of the extent to which Zanu PF has become detached from the principles that guided our liberation struggle.

The final chapter, chapter nine, sets out the political and electoral reforms that will be necessary to ensure that future elections in Zimbabwe are free and fair and produce outcomes that accurately reflect the sovereign wishes of the people.

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