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THe Zimbabwean
By Wilf Mbanga

March 31, 2008 6:30 PM | Printable version

I was apprehensive before the poll. I’m apprehensive now. I find it very disturbing that the Zimbabwe electoral commission (ZEC) has chosen to withhold the results of the elections for so long. This is keeping people in suspense and fuelling the rumour mill about the possibility of the vote being manipulated to give Mugabe a win, or to give the army enough time to deploy forces to stage a coup.

Whatever the truth is, it has not been good for the credibility of these elections. Even the African Union observer mission said as much yesterday.

The delay in announcing the results is unprecedented. For all elections since 1980 the results have begun to be announced as they came in - starting a few hours after polling closed and continuing through the night and the next day. The information gap from Saturday night until 7am this morning has given rise to considerable insecurity and wild rumours of rigging, coup plots and uprisings. The state-controlled media resorted to re-screening old soccer matches as its planned schedule was disrupted by the ZEC’s inexplicable silence. The last official footage I saw of the ZEC was SABC coverage on Sunday morning showing the chairman, George Chiweshe, fleeing the Harare hotel where the MDC was announcing the results pinned up at individual polling stations. Journalists were in hot pursuit. He has not been seen since.

I am convinced elaborate rigging has taken place. By 4pm on Monday the ZEC had officially announced results for 38 constituencies - claiming 19 each for the MDC and Zanu-PF and nothing for Makoni or Mutambara so far. The MDC says these results tally with its own in all areas except one, which it will contest.

The Zimbabwean

Sunday, 30 March 2008 15:03
Election results round-up.

HARARE - Zimbabwe ’s main opposition party has made historic gains in the country’s most hotly contested general election since independence 28 years ago, with opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai clinching 67 percent of the total ballots counted so far, according to unofficial results released Monday.

With results from most of the voting districts announced, the main opposition Movement for Democratic Change had won the majority in Zimbabwe ’s cities sweeping the decks by a landslide, officials said Monday.

President Robert Mugabe and his ruling party was a distant third in the voting tallies, with the MDC Tsvangirai leading, followed by independent candidate Simba Makoni and then the geriatric leader. The small independent parties won at most 4 percent of the votes cast.

Such a closely contested race is unprecedented in a country where President Mugabe’s party has ruled virtually unchallenged since 1980.

MDC secretary general Tendai Biti told the fourth press conference held Monday afternoon that the MDC had made significant inroads into ruling party strongholds and retained all major urban centres.

“In Bulawayo we have won all the 12 House of Assembly seats,” Biti told reporters.

In Bulawayo, an area the Mutambara-led MDC has long claimed to be its stronghold, the MDC faction dismally lost, with senior officials such as deputy president Gibson Sibanda and secretary general Welshamn Ncube losing their seats. Infact, all the MDC Mutambara candidates lost, winning only one senate seat.

Executive Summary

On March 29, 2008, Zimbabwe will hold presidential and parliamentary elections. Few people believe that they will be free and fair or that Robert Mugabe and his Zimbabwe African National Union– Patriotic Front party will fail to return to office.

That is a tragedy, because Mugabe and his cronies are chiefly responsible for an economic meltdown that has turned one of Africa’s most prosperous countries into a country with one of the lowest life expectancies in the world. Since 1994, the average life expectancy in Zimbabwe has fallen from 57 years to 34 years for women and from 54 years to 37 years for men. Some 3,500 Zimbabweans die every week from the combined effects of HIV/AIDS, poverty, and malnutrition. Half a million Zimbabweans may have died already. There is no freedom of speech or assembly in Zimbabwe, and the state has used violence to intimidate and murder its opponents.

At the root of Zimbabwe’s problems is a corrupt political elite that has, with considerable international support, behaved with utter impunity for some two decades. This elite is determined to hang on to power no matter what the consequences, lest it be held to account for the genocide in Matabeleland in the early 1980s and the wholesale looting of Zimbabwe that followed the mismanaged land reform in 2000.

When change comes to Zimbabwe, the nation will have to rediscover the rule of law and the sanctity of persons and property. The public discourse and the economy will have to be reopened. The new government will have to embrace a more limited idea of government and rescind legislation that makes the operation of the private sector next to impossible. Moreover, the new government will have to find a way for the people of Zimbabwe to heal the wounds caused by decades of political violence.

Dear Voter in the Khumalo Senatorial Constituency,

On the 29th March 2008 you have the chance to change the course of Zimbabwean history for the better. Zimbabwe is in such a terrible state that we do not have the luxury of making a mistake. Another 5 years of Zanu PF rule will completely destroy Zimbabwe.

In football terms Zimbabwe was in the Premier league in 1980. Since then it has had the same coach, Robert Mugabe, and his assistants, Zanu PF. In 28 years Mugabe has taken the Zimbabwean team from the Premier league to the bottom of the 4th social league. Next season we will not even be able to play football because the players have no boots, balls or kit. The goal posts have fallen down and ground is overgrown. A football team would never keep such a coach – if Zimbabwe is to have any future it simply must end Robert Mugabe and Zanu PF’s rule.

Vote for Parliamentarians and Councillors who have Bulawayo at Heart

In this election you will be able to vote for President, Senate, House of Assembly and Bulawayo City Council. I think it is important to separate the decision you have to make between voting for President on the one hand and Parliament and Council on the other hand. Let me first address the issue of voting for Senate, House of Assembly and Council. When you vote for these offices I believe the most important question you have to ask is “Who will best represent my interests and the interests of Bulawayo and Matabeleland in Parliament and in Council?”

Newsweek

‘A Gorbachev Type’: Makoni’s candidacy is evidence that the system is
fracturing from within
By Scott Johnson | NEWSWEEK
Mar 31, 2008 Issue | Updated: 1:33 p.m. ET Mar 22, 2008

Politics is dangerous business in Robert Mugabe’s Zimbabwe. So this crowd of
4,000 tired-looking peasants and factory workers, packed into a soccer
stadium in the town of Gweru, is understandably subdued. They chat quietly
among themselves, listening to a popular Zimbabwean song, “We Are Afraid of
the Father,” about a patriarch’s violent rages. The tune suits the event-a
rally for Simba Makoni, the 57-year-old technocrat who is challenging
Mugabe, one of Africa’s last “big men,” in elections this week. The crowd
roars when Makoni jogs onto a giant stage and doffs his blue cap. “I am
taking off my hat so you can see that I am a man,” he says, shouting. “My
name is Simba Makoni! And I am the one!”

If ever Zimbabwe needed a savior it’s now. An inflation rate that tops
100,000 percent has destroyed the economy. One in five adults in Zimbabwe is
infected with HIV; women have the lowest life expectancy-34 years-in the
world. And at 84, Mugabe refuses to ease the grip in which he’s held the
country since independence in 1980. Like dictators everywhere, he’s long
been sustained by cronies who don’t much care what happens to the nation as
long as they get their cut. That’s why Makoni’s political insurgency is so
threatening: a former Finance minister, he comes out of Mugabe’s inner
circle. The system, finally, may be turning on itself.

Zim Standard

Sunday, 16 March 2008

THE determination of a winner in next week’s Presidential election has
been thrown into uncertainty amid revelations that Section 110 of the
Electoral Act contradicts the Second Schedule of the same legislation which
outlines how the winner will be determined. This, lawyers said, had the
potential to cause confusion as it remained unclear how the Zimbabwe
Electoral Commission (ZEC) would read the provisions.
Section 110 (3) of the Electoral Act says in the event that none of
the candidates gets a majority, there has to be a run-off within 21 days.

“Where . . . no candidate receives a majority of the total number of
valid votes cast, a second election shall be held within twenty-one days
after the previous election in accordance with this Act.”

But unknown to many political activists, the Second Schedule to the
Electoral Act states otherwise. It says that “the Chief Elections Officer
shall forthwith declare the candidate who has received . . . the greatest
number of votes; to be duly elected as President of the Republic of Zimbabwe
with effect from the day of such declaration”.

The Zimbabwe Lawyers for Human Rights (ZLHR) warned “this
inconsistency has the potential to cause serious problems in the event that
none of the Presidential candidates obtain a majority of the votes cast”.

The ZLHR said there was a need for an “immediate clarification” of the
position regarding a run-off. It sent questions to the Zimbabwe Electoral
Commission (ZEC) which were not responded to, at the time of going to press.

Justice and Legal Affairs Minister Patrick Chinamasa could not clarify
the inconsistencies. He said he was addressing a campaign rally in the rural
areas.

Wall Street Journal

By MARIAN L. TUPY and DAVID COLTART
March 14, 2008

Zimbabwe’s presidential and parliamentary elections on March 29 are rigged
in favor of the incumbent leader Robert Mugabe and his Zimbabwe African
National Union-Patriotic Front. Much ink has been spilled on the electoral
prospects of his two opponents — Morgan Tsvangirai, the leader of the
Movement for Democratic Change, and former Finance Minister Simba Makoni.
But neither have a realistic chance of winning, for Mr. Mugabe knows that
the most likely alternative to the State House in Harare is a prison cell at
The Hague.

The case against Mr. Mugabe and the ZANU-PF for crimes against humanity
would be compelling. They have turned one of Africa’s most prosperous and
relatively free nations into an Orwellian nightmare. Since 1994, the average
life expectancy in Zimbabwe has fallen to 34 from 57 for women and to 37
from 54 for men. Some 3,500 Zimbabweans die every week from the combined
effects of HIV/AIDS, poverty and malnutrition. Inflation and unemployment
are at 150,000% (no misprint here) and 80%, respectively. The country has no
freedom of speech or assembly, and the government has used violence to
intimidate and murder its opponents. In the meantime, Zimbabwe’s delusional
leader rails against non-existent Western plots supposedly concocted by
George W. Bush and Tony Blair.

By right, Mr. Mugabe and the ZANU-PF should have been voted out of office
long time ago. But one of Mr. Mugabe’s first steps after gaining power was
to root out all threats to his rule. In August 1980, newly elected Prime
Minister Mugabe asked Kim Il Sung, the North Korean dictator, for help in
setting up a special army unit devoted to quelling Zimbabwe’s internal
dissent. Paradoxically, the potential dissenters Mr. Mugabe wanted destroyed
were not the tiny minority of white Rhodesians, but his comrades in the
fight for a majority rule — the Zimbabwe African People’s Union.

Zimbabwe Guardian

Wed, 05 Mar 2008

SIMBA Makoni enters opposition politics in Zimbabwe and tells us that he is not standing AGAINST President Mugabe but FOR the presidency. He goes on to insist that despite compromising Zanu PF’s chosen presidential candidate’s position at the polls, he is still Zanu PF.

The Simba Makoni Project’s aim was to unify the two MDCs first and then later with Zanu PF under the leadership of Simba Makoni. The reason why Dr Simba Makoni had to be seen still carrying the Zanu PF brand was meant to put at ease the rural electorate who perceive MDC as a “puppet”. It must have been perceived by the project co-ordinators that it would be easy to elbow the two MDC leaders from contesting the race, and therefore by default, all their supporters would automatically rally behind Dr Makoni.

Simba Makoni has been Zanu PF for half his life. He understands how to get the key to No.1 Borrowdale Rd. The key holders are the rural dwellers who mostly happen to be staunch Zanu PF supporters. This electorate has held this key since the liberation war and has since bonded with the Zanu PF brand when it comes to politics just in the same way Coca-Cola brand was used to describe any other soft drink on the market in the 70’s. You go to the remotest part of Zimbabwe during that time and you hear people talking about “orange coke” meaning Fanta or “red coke” Sparletta raspberry.

Even if President Mugabe calls Dr Simba Makoni names, he is not likely to answer back harshly (at least for now) not because he is a “nice” person but because he doesn’t want to offend this very electorate he is trying to woo.

The Australian

By David Coltart | March 04, 2008

THINK of Zimbabwe and you may have a vision of the majestic Victoria Falls,
the breathtaking eastern highlands or the animals of the Hwange.

But the more realistic image of Zimbabwe today is of dictator Robert Mugabe
and the swollen, beaten faces of opposition leaders and supporters who dared
to attend a peaceful democracy gathering last March and were nearly killed
for it.

Elections scheduled for March 29 are not likely to change this scene,
despite the outward trappings of a democratic process.

The fact the elections are called for March 29 gives a clue as to the
absurdity of Mugabe’s attempt to legitimise his brutal dictatorship. This
date gives opposition parties scant time to organise and rally their forces,
a task already made almost impossible due to crackdowns on media freedom and
on public gatherings.

To add crushing insult to considerable injury, the regime in the past few
weeks has begun detaining opposition leaders and supporters across the
country for acts that in democracies would be normal campaigning activities.
This week, the police have banned door-to-door campaigning and political
meetings held in the evening. Yet those of us in the opposition movement
take some heart from these tactics. They confirm to us and to the world that
Mugabe knows if free and fair elections were allowed, he would lose.

Should he win the March election, it will confirm an election, again, has
been shockingly rigged.

This should come as no surprise, not even to Mugabe. Subverting his heroic
role in gaining independence for Zimbabwe, then known as Rhodesia, in 1980,
he has become the most significant force holding Zimbabwe back from the
political and economic gains that are its right.

The Editor

Cape Argus,

Attention: Mr Chris Whitfield

Dear Sir,

I have read the letter published in the Cape Argus on the 17th February 2008 written by my friend and colleague Roy Bennett in which he accused Zimbabwean Presidential candidate Simba Makoni of complicity in various crimes against humanity perpetrated by the Mugabe regime because of his association with Zanu PF.

Both Roy Bennett and I served in the BSAP, the Rhodesian Police force, in the 1970s during the civil war fought by ZANLA and ZIPRA against the Rhodesian Front government. Whilst there were undoubtedly atrocities committed by the guerrilla armies, the BSAP played a major role in maintaining white minority rule and during the course of the war torture was also systematically used by the BSAP against captured guerrillas and their supporters.

Despite the fact that we served in the BSAP, we were both elected to Parliament in 2000 by an overwhelmingly black electorate who were prepared to forgive us for the fact that we were members of an institution which had prolonged white minority rule and the oppression of black people. I have always been humbled by the deep reservoir of forgiveness and goodwill shown towards me by black Zimbabweans, who were prepared to look beyond my past and who were prepared to judge me on my more recent record.

Likewise the miracle that unfolded in South Africa in the early 1990s occurred because Nelson Mandela and the ANC were prepared to forgive the National Party and leaders like F.W. De Klerk for their role in apartheid. Much of that spirit of forgiveness stemmed from the fact that Mr de Klerk was prepared to humble himself by giving up the trappings of power and to turn away from the evil past of apartheid. The combination of the spirit of forgiveness, on the one hand, and the turning away from evil, on the other, contributed greatly to the healing that took place in South Africa in the 1990s.