Zimbabwe Elections: Zuma must back Botswana proposal Ian Davidson MP DA Shadow Minister of International Relations and Co-operation The DA calls on President Jacob Zuma to request an urgent meeting of the Southern Africa Development Community (SADC) and to back Botswana’s proposal for an independent audit of the 2013 Zimbabwean election to be conducted without any further delay. Furthermore, that should the audit confirm the numerous irregularities set out below, that the elections are held again once all problems with the voters’ roll are rectified and all conditions of the Global Political Agreement are met. There is sufficient evidence from the SADC, African Union (AU), civil society organisations and the DA’s own observers that proves that the election did not stand up to the key democratic prescripts of what constitutes a truly free and fair election. The growing consensus that the elections were neither fair nor credible should have sent a message to President Zuma that his position should not be determined by regional politics. SADC itself did not pronounce on whether it was fair, such findings will only take place once a final report on the polls is presented and discussed at the SADC Lilongwe summit. President Zuma’s current position that the election was “successful” and “harmonised” must therefore also be formally retracted to send a key message on his government’s concerns with the numerous reports of election rigging by Zanu-PF. Anything less represents a major failure for the people of Zimbabwe and the region as a whole, where South Africa has the potential to lead. The Pre-Election Phase: The road to the recent Zimbabwean elections began in 2008 with the signing of the Global Political Agreement (GPA) between Zanu-PF and the Movement for Democratic Change. The GPA aimed to bring about major reforms in the country which would ensure that Zimbabwe moved closer towards a successful, multi-party democracy. In his position as the Southern African Development Community (SADC) Facilitator of the GPA, President Jacob Zuma was supposed to play an instrumental role in monitoring that the GPA was implemented by both parties. The Global Political Agreement outlines very clear reforms which needed to take place in Zimbabwe. This included: •A constitution •Depoliticisation of the security sector •Free media •Freedom of association •Freedom from intimidation In order to have free and fair elections in the country, these reforms should have been in place. An electorate which is not free from intimidation, does not have access to free media and is influenced by politicised security forces, is not a free electorate. President Zuma, in his role as SADC Facilitator, has failed Zimbabwe, failed Zimbabweans and failed the SADC by not fulfilling his duty to ensure that these reforms took place before the elections. The lack of strong leadership in the region on the part of President Zuma has resulted in what we believe to be a farce of an election. The DA’s SADC observer mission: DA MPs Masizole Mnqasela and Herman Groenewald were sent to Zimbabwe as part of the SADC Parliamentary Forum’s Mission and SADC Secretariat’s Mission, respectively, to monitor the 2013 Zimbabwe Elections. The outline of their mission was to: •Observe political rallies •Visit local towns, villages and farms before the elections •Observe voting stations on the election day •Compile a report of their observations Mr Mnqasela visited 8 political districts located in Mashonaland West, and Mr Groenewald visited Buhera West as part of their respective delegations. The Special Vote: The special vote was poorly managed as voting began late on both days. It is also understood that the number of those who cast their votes had been inflated from 44 113 to 69 000. The exact figure cannot be verified, despite attempts to. It appeared that village constituencies were being coerced to vote for Zanu-PF with threats of a repeat of the pre-and-post 2008 election violence. A random register was used by Zanu-PF agents to monitor voter trends in villages. Security personnel including the police and the army were openly canvassing for Zanu-PF. In suburbs, townships, towns and cities, where people were more likely to support MDC-T, there were very few registration centres and they were marked by long queues, resulting in fewer people registering. Observation of the process before elections: •The DA observed flaws in the management of the registration process •The time afforded for targeted voter registration was not adequate •Registration in urban centres was far less efficient than rural ones •Game Park communities had to travel long distances to reach registration centres •On-going voter registration created loopholes for abus •The electoral act allows for a voter to vote with a voter slip even if absent on the voters’ roll •The election process in villages was militarised, with army trucks helping to transport supporters of some political parties •Official government vehicles were being used when campaigning for political parties •Communities were being forced to attend rallies of certain political parties without their consent •Shop owners in village growth points were forced to close their shops when political parties conducted rallies in their neighbourhoods Election Day: The Zimbabwean Electoral Commission (ZEC) and the country’s police appeared prepared for Election Day in those districts visited. The ZEC had 10 officials in each polling station, 5 police officers were deployed in each polling station and local and international observers were clearly visible. All stations opened at the scheduled time and closed as scheduled, except in exceptional cases. Voters had easy access to polling stations and they were able to exercise their vote freely and in private. The election environment was calm, peaceful and free from political violence, except in some village communities where voters were reminded of the 2008 violence should Zanu-PF not win. There were, however, several factors, contributing to the election not being ‘fair’: •Various competing political parties and candidates were not given equal opportunity to participate in the elections, due to insufficient access to the voters’ roll •A substantial number of people voted with voter registration slips even though they did not appear on the voters’ roll •Many people were turned away for various reasons, ranging from being in the incorrect voting station and many were not registered at all despite having been registered prior to the elections •Some polling stations were not gazetted; •In some village communities, polling stations were collapsed into a single station, and voters frogmarched there to vote under the guard of traditional leaders •Special Votes were marred by logistical insufficiencies •There were more ballot papers in the province than the actual registered voters •The ZEC itself agreed that printing 8.7 million ballot papers was excessive and unnecessary, instead of the 5 - 20 % norm as per the regulations of best practices. This 8.7 million constitutes at least 35% more ballots than the registered voters for these elections •Busses in some areas were used to bring in people from other areas, bringing into question whether they were registered in the area •Councillor ballots were in huge excess compared to the actual number of voters •There is a registered case with the police in Harare, where Zanu-PF activists were arrested while distributing registration certificates, without authorisation Conclusion: Although the election-day was indeed peaceful, there were numerous irregularities in the voting process. An audit report from the Research and Advocacy Unit confirmed many of these irregularities with the voters’ roll prior to the vote. Key concerns raised in this report were that more rural than urban voters had been registered and certain constituencies had more registered voters than inhabitants. This was further highlighted by the Zimbabwean Election Support Network last week. It is for these reasons that the elections cannot be considered credible or fair based on the failure to implement reforms and serious irregularities with the registration and voting process. The outcome simply cannot be considered a true reflection of the will of the Zimbabwean people. President Zuma has a small window of opportunity now to do what he should have done some time ago. He must use his position in SADC to ensure that action is taken to rectify this undemocratic outcome. Anything less will represent a failure for the Zimbabwean people and a significant undermining of the principle of democracy, which is the cornerstone of our Constitution.
Posted on: Thu, 08 Aug 2013 14:22:33 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015