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Zimbabwe's March 2008 elections concerns
G. Paul Gotora, Zimbabwe People's Progress Democratic Party
January 13, 2008

Concerns

Our concerns are that the so-called harmonized elections for March 2008 will not be free and fair because:

1. It is the first time in 27 years of ZANU PF rule that elections have been harmonized to lump together presidential, parliamentary, senatorial and rural council elections which are to be held in less than one day.
2. It must be noted that there are about 5.7 million registered voters who shall vote four times in a row making altogether 23 million votes to be cast in less than a day. That is impossible. How about the jostle and hustle by voters as they fight to cast their votes under the law of the survival of the fittest.
3. The delimitation exercise will be another cause of confusion because the exercise is still incomplete and we are now in January 2008 being less than three months from the start of elections. We wonder why the exercise was embarked upon as a last minute decision yet the Government and Zanu PF knew when the elections were to be held. To us (ZPPDP) this is a ploy to rig the elections before they have started. We say stop this half baked exercise which is a waste of time and money.
4. With the delimitation running late, we don't see voter education being done in time and without it (voter education) confusion will be the order of the day especially amongst the youths who are going to be the majority of newly registered voters. We wonder how many spoiled papers there will be. We know the spoiled papers will disadvantage the opposition parties whose main constituency is the youth. Zanu PF has established a voter base built over 27 years of its rule and therefore may not be affected by the confusion. We say no to elections until voters are educated in how to vote.
5. Squeezing 23 million votes in half a day is nothing but madness and a cheating tactic on the part of Zanu PF meant to enable them to rig from start to finish. We want free and fair elections but the present handling of the pre-election period by Government, in real fact Zanu PF, is totally unacceptable and fraudulent.
6. (a) The Herald of 24th December, 2007 reported that $15 trillion was shared between Zanu PF and MDC in terms of the Political Parties (Finance) Act. ZPPDP is concerned that the exclusion of other political parties through a discriminatory clause which stipulates that, for a political party qualify for this funding, it has to have members of parliament representing it, smells of selfishness and cowardice on the part of Zanu PF and government.(b) In our view, this Act was created more for the benefit of Zanu PF with symbolic benefit to an opposition party sitting in parliament. We therefore find this Act repressive and oppressive to other opposition parties with no parliamentarians in the House of Assembly. We know that the Act is meant to reduce effectiveness of other opposition parties and give an upper hand to Zanu PF.
7. The correct way to share the funds is that it should apply to all political parties with bias to opposition parties outside the House of Assembly. In fact Zanu PF should be retired from this fund seeing that it has been benefiting from this fund in all elections and should now be in a position to fund itself.
8. Through this Act, Zanu PF is guffawing at us, the opposition parties, by asking us to source funds from our members and supporters knowing very well that our members or supporters cannot get their money from the banks. If one is lucky enough to get to the bank teller, one is given ZW$5 million, an amount equal to US$2.5 or less than 50p, after queuing for weeks which is not enough for one individual to buy lunch let alone to have something to donate to a political party.
9. By the same Act, Zanu PF government forbids us to receive funding from Zimbabweans in the Diaspora as a way of making sure that opposition parties get no funding and therefore reduce the strength and vigour of opposition parties.
10. Having said all the above concerns, we of Zimbabwe People's Progress Democratic Party strongly believe that March 2008 elections will not be free and fair.

For more information, contact:
G. Paul Gotora
Tel: 263-4-308924

Vice President
Cell: 263-11-745610

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