Elections null, void: Tsvangirai

Daily News

By Wendy Muperi

2 August 2013

HARARE - Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai has called Wednesday’s vote a “huge farce,” a day after his latest attempt to end President Robert Mugabe’s 33-year rule.

Tsvangirai’s views were also shared by David Coltart of the smaller MDC faction who described the election as a farce adding the entire election was fraught with irregularities.

The visibly dejected Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) presidential candidate told a press conference yesterday the election was heavily manipulated and did not meet minimum election standards for the Southern African Development Community (Sadc) and the African Union (AU).

“The shoddy manner in which it has been conducted and the consequent illegitimacy of the result will plunge this country into a serious crisis,” Tsvangirai said.

“Its credibility has been marred by administrative and legal violations which affect the legitimacy of its outcome,” he added.

“It is a sham election that does not reflect the will of the people.”

The MDC leader called the election a huge “farce.”

“I am sure you know the developments around the election and what is emerging throughout the country but the conclusion has been that this has been a huge farce. It is a sham election that does not reflect the will of the people,” he said.

“It is our view that this election is null and void, it does not meet Sadc, AU or international standards for a credible legitimate free and fair election.”

Administrative and legal violations, challenges related to the voters’ roll, manipulation of the voter’s choice through voter assistance, intimidation, abuse of voter’s slips as proof of voter registration, militarisation of the electoral process, lack of transparency in ballot paper printing and double voting are some of reasons constituting Tsvangirai’s basis for disputing the legitimacy of the outcome.

The Daily News investigations team on Wednesday lifted the lid on electoral fraud that ended with a team of 20 Zanu PF youths being detained at Hatfield Police Station for distributing fake voter registration slips.

Some used the slips to vote in Hatfield.

A sombre atmosphere engulfed Harvest House, the MDC headquarters, as depressed MDC polling officers trooped into the offices.

Riot police were deployed outside the party headquarters.

The MDC leader, who had hoped for a landslide victory supported by several surveys, decried the implications of the outcome on the generality of Zimbabweans.

“Zanu PF may have this clarion victory as they would want to claim but I want to assure you that the resolution of the Zimbabwean crisis has never been so near because we know at the end of the day Mugabe and Zanu PF are not going to put food on the on the table,” Tsvangirai said.

“We also know that the country, facing this myriad of problems cannot be resolved by these shenanigans,” he said.

Tsvangirai accused Zanu PF of subverting the people’s vote.

“Let me also say some of us believed that in spite of some of the hurdles that had to be overcome, that this election will resolve the political and economic crisis the country is facing,” he said.

“Once again Zimbabweans have been short-changed and they will have to bear the economic, socio and political consequences undertaken by Mugabe and Zanu PF,” he said adding: “MDC MPs who are celebrating that they won, this is not the moment to celebrate. It is a moment to be sad.”

The outspoken PM — though disturbed by the poll — still expressed hope for the future.

“For us we want to assure every Zimbabwean, that this is the beginning of the end,” he said.

Coltart said: “Even prior to the election on Tuesday, I handed a letter to the Head of the Sadc team in Bulawayo detailing 6 serious breaches of our Electoral law and Constitution which stands as record.

“In my view the entire election is illegal — for example I have still not received a copy of the electronic voters’ roll which I was entitled to and which was a key mechanism to counter rigging.

“That news along with news of the loss of Manicaland, Masvingo and Matabeleland South to Zanu PF makes it clear in my mind that the entire election is fraudulent. It also puts my loss in context.”

The Zimbabwe Election Support Network (Zesn), a coalition of local non-government organisations monitoring elections in the country, described the poll as “seriously compromised.”

“Up to a million voters were disenfranchised,” Solomon Zwana, the chairman of Zesn, told a press conference yesterday.

Zanu PF’s spokesperson, Rugare Gumbo, rejected allegations that the poll was rigged, saying it was part of a plot by Americans and Europeans to discredit the vote.

Former Nigerian president Olusegun Obasanjo, head of the African Union observer mission, told reporters on Wednesday night that he felt the vote was provisionally “free and fair”.

“From what I saw, and the reports that I’ve received so far from our observers who went out in the field, the conduct of the elections everywhere they went to was peaceful, orderly and free and fair,” Obasanjo said.

Rita Makarau, chairperson of the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission (Zec), conceded “a few minor logistical problems” where voting started slowly, and appealed to people to put forward any evidence of irregularities.