ZVAKWANA

Zvakwana-Sokwanele

ENOUGH IS ENOUGH!

Recent Elections

The most recent elections in Zimbabwe took place on March 31st, 2005. Some news reports prior to the election were quite optimistic that the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) party would pull through this year, mostly because supporter turnout for the MDC at campaign rallies often greatly exceeded the number of people who turned out for Robert Mugabe’s Zimbabwe African National Union-Patriotic Front (ZANU-PF).

President Mugabe was running for re-election with the ZANU-PF party, with Morgan Tsvangirai as his rival, running for the MDC party.

Prior to the Elections:

There was much concern before the election from Mugabe opposition and from many international states that the election would once again not be a fair, democratic election, since the elections in 2000 and 2002 ended with accusations that Mugabe had rigged the elections in his favor.

With the world watching this time Mugabe was not able to slip under the radar as easily. To convince the public that this election would not be rigged new laws were put in place with guidelines on having a democratic election, which included impartiality of electoral institutions and equal opportunity for running parties to campaign.

The government did put in place an electoral supervising body for the day of the election called the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission (ZEC) which was a positive step in insuring democratic guidelines would be followed. The Southern African Development Community (SADC) was also in Zimbabwe monitoring the electoral process.

Human Rights Watch (HRW) encouraged the SADC to demand the government allow for equal opportunity campaigning preceding the election date.

Despite more campaigning freedoms granted prior to the election, the government had already created an unequal voting field by using intimidation and manipulation of potential voters with food and media control; Mugabe strongly denied having deliberately distributed foods only to ZANU-PF supporters.

New repressive laws were put in place to intentionally infringe upon media organizations that were in any way in opposition of or critical about the government. The Access to Information and Protection of Privacy Act (AIPPA) targets independent news businesses such as journalists, newspapers, radio and tv programs that don’t side with ZANU-PF.

Before the elections, only two unbiased newspapers remained open. Because the government has taken such control of the news that Zimbabwean’s get they have been fed very biased news concerning the elections.

With people hearing primarily propaganda from the ZANU-PF party because of controlled news, and with political violence noticeably reduced from past elections, it is no wonder that once again ZANU-PF was able to capture the ballot majority, even without ballot rigging.

Why a Rigged Election?

With President Mugabe having already been in power for 25 years why would he need to rig the elections? Mugabe’s term ends in 2008 and it is in the ZANU-PF’s best interests to have Mugabe step down before that time and instate a successor from the ZANU-PF political party. While this capability is not currently legalized in Zimbabwe’s constitution, Mugabe needed a 2/3’s majority win in parliament so he could legally revise this into the constitution. Much to the opposition parties dismay Mugabe did manage to win the 2/3 majority and now has the capability to revise the constitution.

On March 31st, election day, reports were made about the vast number of voters turned away from MDC voting monitors with the excuse that identity proof was not in order. One article said that one out of four voters was turned away, while another report said that one in every ten people was turned away. Even an official, Eddie Cross, who is a part of Mugabe’s executive committee, made the following statement for the NY Times: “Mr. Cross charged Thursday that ZANU-PF officials had plotted a massive campaign of voting fraud, led by the printing of 2 million false ballots that he said were to be stuffed as needed into boxes at polling stations across the nation. He had said that some other critics say that Zimbabwe’s voting rolls are inflated with up to 2.7 million names of voters who have died or fled the country. Mr. Cross refused to disclose the sources on which his allegations of voter fraud by ZANU-PF were based, and there is no way to independently verify them.”

Opposition of the Elections:

Zvakwana played a part in opposing the elections by posing an illegitimate ballot campaign. What this meant was Zvakwana was encouraging people to go to the polls but not vote for anybody who was running, but rather cast a ‘spoiled’ ballot. This way people could actively voice their disapproval of the flawed election process. As Zvakwana’s newsletter states, “this action is not a rejection of any independent candidate or political party it is a rejection of the process.” Another state meant was “by spoiling your ballot you will not legitimize an illegitimate election.” While this form of protest did not effect the outcome of the election, one would hope that they got their message across.

The MDC called the elections rigged, but Morgan Tsvangirai, who ran for the MDC party, reported to the NY Times that they would not contest this election in court as they did in both 2000 and 2002. Instead Tsvangirai urged Zimbabwean’s to take to the streets in protest of the fraudulent elections.

Hundreds did respond to Tsvangirai’s call to protest and filled the streets of Zimbabwe’s capital, Harare on April 4th.

The MDC is also planning on filing a report pertaining to the suspected election fraud. Disparities in the number of voter turnout and the actual ballot count are large, causing much suspicion across Zimbabwe.

It is hard to know what steps the opposition parties should take next. The ZANU-PF party is once again in power and with the 2/3’s majority in parliament they have the ability to abuse their power, changing the constitution to what fits their political needs, leaving the rest of Zimbabwe virtually helpless and at the government's mercy. Things do not look good for an already economically unstable Zimbabwe.

Created by Caitlin Sloan