u PF rigging machinery.
The Zimbabwe Electoral Commission refused to accept our polling agents arguing that they had not seen a published list of their names as required by law. This is despite the fact that the agents’ names were published in The Daily Mirror of Friday, 16 February 2007 and it is the duty of ZEC to make sure presiding officers at polling stations get the list. When voting kicked off this morning, most of our polling agents had been ordered to stay 200 metres away from the polling stations.
Starting with this election, the regime has started using erasable ink as opposed to indelible ink. As a result, Zanu PF supporters have been voting more than once in Chiredzi and the election cannot be said to be free and fair. In Manicaland, the provincial spokesman, Pishai Muchauraya, was arrested for voicing his concern over the use of erasable markers’ ink in the Rusape ward elections.
Zanu PF is plodding yet again in its familiar path of chicanery and wanton disregard of the people’s wishes. There cannot be a free and fair electoral process when we have such an impartial body as the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission running the show. There cannot be a free and fair election when a public broadcaster such as the Zimbabwe Broadcasting Corporation is openly campaigning for Zanu PF and blacking out the opposition in wilful violation of the SADC guidelines on the conduct of free and fair. There cannot be a free and fair election in Chiredzi South when the army is actively campaigning for Zanu PF and army trucks are ferrying food and distributing it to Zanu PF supporters. Surely, it cannot be an open contest when the President of the chiefs’ council openly tells chiefs in the constituency to deny opposition supporters food. It is already a predetermined outcome when a governor addresses civil servants in the constituency and tells them to actively support Zanu PF if they are to keep their jobs.
The MDC believes that the solution lies in creating impartial institutions that run elections. The solution to the national crisis lies in a new, people-driven Constitution, free and fair elections under international supervision, reconstruction and stabilization in post-transitional era. Otherwise, if we continue to run elections the Chiredzi way, we will remain stuck in this unmitigated crisis. A new Zimbabwe is our mandate.
Ian Makone
Secretary for Elections
Post published in: News