Voter reg process violates democracy – Chamisa (28-06-07)

r’s elections.
“It is a well-orchestrated ambush on Zimbabweans in the sense that the regime wants to waylay the democratic process that we hope to bring about with a new constitution,” MDC spokesman, Nelson Chamisa said.
“Zimbabwe does not have an independent electoral body and Mudede has an impeccable history of manipulating elections. We have established that the people he is using in the registration process were vetted on the basis of loyalty to Zanu (PF). Mudede has presided over the past elections and been accused as the chief architect of a rigging system that has allowed the ruling party to retain power,” he said.
But Zanu (PF)’s secretary for administration, also minister of State Security, Didymus Mutasa said the voter registration process was being done constitutionally and had nothing sinister about it.
“It is being done by a constitutional body and we are all preparing for next year’s elections and there is nothing wrong with that,” he said. “The elections will be held next year and we have the bodies that are constitutionally mandated to supervise as well as run those elections, meaning there is nothing we should wait for.”
Mudede has allegedly recruited members of the Zanu (PF) militia to beef up his depleted staff for the voter registration process, which also faces a serious lack of resources and funding.
The ruling party recently gazetted an 18th amendment to the constitution with which it seeks to lay the ground for holding of combined elections next year in what the opposition leader, Morgan Tsvangirai last week described as contemptuous and pre-emptive of the SADC initiated dialogue process.
Murambatsvina victims live in squalor
MBARE
More than 2000 residents of an overcrowded block of flats here face serious health risks following the collapse of the sewage system close to a year ago, which has not been fixed.
The Zimbabwean visited Matapi Flats in Mbare and witnessed raw sewage flowing on the floors, the stairs as well as all over the ground. Residents at the overcrowded block of flats told this paper that the situation has been with them since last year when the sewage reticulation system collapsed and repeated pleas to the Harare City Commission and lately the Zimbabwe National Water Authority (ZINWA).
“We have been having this situation for the past year,” one resident, Farai Jerera, said. “Raw sewage flows all over, in the toilets, at the stairs and at times into the rooms we stay in. It is an issue that has been ignored for unknown reasons but there have been several cases of people, especially the young ones falling sick.”
Harare City Commission’s chairman, Sekesai Makwavarara said she was aware of the situation. “We have been working on finding measures to solve the problem. The major worry is the health hazard,” she said.
Situated close to the Mbare agricultural produce market, Matapi Flats symbolizes the plight of the poor urbanites with up to 12 people-both male and female-sleeping in a single room. Residents at the flats told this paper recently that the bulk of them were victims of government’s Operation Clean Up (Murambatsvina) of 2005 when it claimed it was restoring order whilst rendering more than 700 000 people homeless.