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February 2008 Newsletter to Bulawayo South Constituents

Dear Friends,

Harold Wilson once said that “a week is a long time in politics” and it certainly is. Since I last wrote to you in January there have been dramatic and unforeseen political events that have taken place in Zimbabwe.

The gerrymandering of Bulawayo South

In the run up to the elections Bulawayo South Constituency has been completely changed in the delimitation exercise. The old Bulawayo South Constituency has been divided up into 3 new House of Assembly constituencies and is almost unrecognizable. Wards 24, 25 and 26 – the high density working class areas of Nketa and Emgwanin – have been formed into a new constituency called Nketa. Ward 6 – Bellevue, Newton West, Barham Green and Belmont – has been combined with Ward 21 – the high density Sizinda/Tshabalala area of the old neighbouring Nkulumane constituency to form the new Bulawayo South constituency. Finally Ward 5 – Hillside, Hillcrest, Burnside, Four Winds – has been combined with Wards 1 and 2, the city centre and North End, to form a new long narrow constituency called Bulawayo Central that stretches from Burnside in the south some 40 kilometers to the airport in the north! This is truly Zanu PF gerrymandering at its worst.

Africa News
February 24, 2008
By Jan Raath

Johannesburg/Harare - Voters in Zimbabwe’s elections due in five weeks will have to puzzle through a blur of alliances, divisions and sub-divisions among the political parties before they can decide who is really the parliamentary candidate they want to vote for.

The Zimbabwe Electoral Commission, the official election administrator, published Sunday a list of 779 candidates for the 210 seats in the lower house of assembly, and 197 aspirants for the 60 elected seats in the upper house, the senate, from 12 political parties and 116 independents.

The choice is narrowed by the fact that three of those parties have clear national support. The clarity ends there.
Thereafter, voters are faced with numerous candidates claiming to represent the same party, others purporting to represent the genuine faction of one of the mainstream parties but in fact using the name and symbol of a different faction, and independent candidates who are not really independent but allied to factions of other parties.

‘It’s going to be very confusing to a lot of voters,’ admitted David Coltart, senate candidate for the smaller faction of the opposition Movement for Democratic Change.

The muddle of candidates adds to widespread concern over the elections on March 29, where, for the first time, the electorate of 5.5 million people will have to mark their Xs on four different ballot papers for presidential, house of assembly, senate and local government wards.

Church and civic groups point out that the head of ZEC, judge George Chiweshe, has been illegally appointed by Mugabe; that he ignored legal procedures for the setting of the election date; that the boundaries of the constituencies in the elections were illegally promulgated; and that there is evidence of comprehensive manipulation of the voters roll.

Zim Standard 24 February 2008

By Vusumuzi Sifile

ON Friday last week, the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission (ZEC) was still
“working flat out” to finalise the list of candidates to contest the 1 958
wards in next month’s harmonised elections, a week after nomination courts
sat across the country.

This, and the way a few nomination courts failed to complete their
business on time, in some instances continuing until the next morning, has
sparked speculation on the commission’s preparedness to run the harmonised
elections.

Observers and analysts last week said if the confusion at the
nomination courts were to be taken as an example, then the ZEC has shown
“very little by way of readiness” for the 29 March polls. Commentators noted
“it is still legally possible to postpone the elections” as there are still
a number of “fundamental issues requiring more time to correct”.

Noel Kututwa, the chairperson of the Zimbabwe Election Support Network
(ZESN), said the same problems encountered at nomination could spill into
the elections.

“This was to be expected,” Kututwa said. “I anticipate the same
problem with the voting … It would be undesirable for polling to go on and
on beyond 7PM given the on-going power cuts and no electricity in some rural
constituencies.”

Last week, the Catholic Commission for Justice and Peace (CCJP) said
the situation was not ideal for elections next month.

But ZEC officials insist they are ready, as they have been “preparing
for over a year”.

ZEC spokesperson, Shupikai Mashereni, on Thursday acknowledged they
faced challenges putting together results of the nomination court.

“We had nomination courts sitting throughout the country,” Mashereni
said. “Results were sent mostly by phone or fax, but when we got them, some
of them were not very clear. Each ward had an average of six contestants,
and we had to tabulate the information ward by ward,” he said.

Washington Post

By Michael Gerson
Wednesday, February 20, 2008;

One of the most reckless and cruel acts of government is the destruction of
a currency.

During the hyperinflation of Germany’s Weimar Republic, the number of marks
in circulation went from 29 billion in 1918 to 497 quintillion in 1923.
Workers were paid twice a day and given breaks to spend their money, carted
in wheelbarrows, before it became worthless. Most Germans lost their life
savings, leaving many prepared to blame others for their impoverishment. The
Nazis blamed the Jews.

This kind of hyperinflation is rare in history, but we are seeing it once
again, in Zimbabwe. Government officials claim an inflation rate of 66,212
percent (most months they refuse to release inflation figures at all). The
International Monetary Fund believes the rate is closer to 150,000
percent — about the level reached by Weimar Germany. By some estimates,
about 50 percent of Zimbabwe’s government revenue comes from the printing of
money. At independence in 1980, the Zimbabwean dollar was worth more than
one U.S. dollar. Recently, the state-controlled newspaper raised its cover
price to 3 million Zimbabwean dollars. Two pounds of chicken were recently
reported to cost about 15 million Zimbabwean dollars.

A Zimbabwean friend who runs a business recently told me, “If you don’t get
a bill collected in 48 hours, it isn’t worth collecting, because it is
worthless. Whenever we get money, we must immediately spend it, just go and
buy what we can. Our pension was destroyed ages ago. None of us have any
savings left.” Zimbabwean nationals who work on the U.S. Embassy staff in
Harare have seen all their retirement funds wiped out. American government
officials in the country carry boxes of money to pay at restaurants and must
begin counting out currency at the beginning of the meal to finish by its
end.

The Zimbabwean 20 February 2008

BY CHIEF REPORTER
HARARE

With the diaspora unable to vote, next month’s crucial poll in troubled Zimbabwe will be decided largely by the country’s rural population, who make up 75 percent of the total 11,9 million population.

These are the people who have borne the brunt of a violent intimidation campaign by the ruling party.

“The outcome of the vote will be determined in rural areas,” said Ronald Shumba, a Harare-based political analyst. Green bombers and party activists have terrorised the countryside to prevent farm workers and peasants living on community settlements from voting. The farm workers must now take loyalty tests to Zanu (PF) in exchange for a guarantee they will be allowed to continue ploughing, sowing and harvesting.

Prof Welshman Ncube, secretary-general of the MDC (Mutambara) said the main question was not whether the elections would be free and fair, but “whether the estimated 5,6 million registered voters will be brave enough to turn out in large numbers and say ‘No’ to intimidation.”

Respected lawyer, David Coltart, said the government was trying to use old intimidation techniques, but “they simply do not have the same resources as before.”

“They used to have a guerrilla army of 50,000 people country-wide. We think that there are probably no more than 300 to 400 of these people - the rest are untrained youths,” he said.

Presidential candidate Simba Makoni has claimed the huge turnout last week at the registration centres was actuated by his entry into the presidential race.

“Judging by the response we have had since our announcement, we are heading for a landslide win,” Makoni said. “We have reports that voter registration was up 10-fold since the Tuesday we launched our bid. The enthusiasm is palpable.”