Those in business are saying they are holding onto major decisions because of the uncertainty created by the delayed results. Those in employment say they are having concentration problems at work, which are affecting their productivity. Those unemployed and without food are hoping for a change in their fortunes if the candidate they voted for is declared the winner now and not tomorrow.
I have no answers for my constituency. This is not healthy for either the nation or individuals. It is not healthy for me either. It is nerve-racking and frustrating to say the least. ZEC is a public body led by a learned fellow, and it is expected in the discharge of its duties to act reasonably in matters that affect the rights of others and in particular the rights of over 14m Zimbabweans here and in the diaspora.
The original reason given by ZEC for the delay in releasing the results was that they were collating and verifying the same. This reason was not believed by anyone, including 14-year-olds who are yet to qualify to vote. ZEC was dealing with 210 forms or datasets, compiled and collated at the constituency centres countrywide. Most of the data on these forms had by March 30, 2008 been agreed to by ZEC constituency and provincial election officers and all contesting candidates directly or through agents and signed for. The addition of total votes obtained by each of the four presidential candidates should not have then taken more than three hours with the help of Bill Gates’s Microsoft Excel.
When the original reason for delaying the results could no longer be sustained, ZEC came up with another one. This time they said they had received complaints from Zanu (PF) that they had been robbed in 21 constituencies and therefore they wanted a recount.
In Patrick Chinamasa’s words, ZEC had rejected their request save in five constituencies in which he alleges their complaint had been submitted within 48 hours of the announcement of the results as provided for by the law. This meant in all other constituencies Zanu (PF) was expected to file petitions in the electoral court within 14 days of the poll. Alas that was not to be. ZEC has gone ahead to publish a notice that they will do recounts in the same constituencies that Zanu (PF) had raised complaints notwithstanding that this was done out of time.
Power favours one group
The power given by the legislature to ZEC to conduct recounts must be based on a reasonable suspicion that there were miscounts or votes were stolen. The legislature in its wisdom never intended that this power be used to favour one group of people.
The question on the minds of most Zimbabweans and the international community is that: Is there any reasonable suspicion that votes were stolen from Mr Robert Mugabe as suggested by Mr Patrick Chinamasa and buttressed by ZEC’s notice for recounts? Never mind President Thabo Mbeki’s day-dreaming that HIV does not cause AIDS and that there is no crisis in Zimbabwe when he is looking it in the eye. He seems not to see nor hear any evil when it comes to Robert Mugabe and Zanu (PF). The two have something in common: Mbeki is determined to ensure that Jacob Zuma does not become South Africa’s president, whilst Robert Mugabe vowed that Morgan Tsvangirai would never be president of Zimbabwe irrespective of what the people of the two countries think.
Zimbabwe has an Electoral Commission still appointed entirely by Robert Mugabe, from a shortlist picked predominantly by his party, which until March 28 2008 was the majority party in parliament. Zimbabwe police have started arresting ZEC election officials countrywide, alleging they fraudulently deprived Mr Mugabe of votes during vote-counting or compiling. If so, they robbed Mr. Robert Mugabe in front of police and numerous other witnesses – without it being detected for a week.
Whatever red herrings people may try to draw now across the trail, all the counting was done in front of numerous witnesses including the police and Zanu (PF)’s polling agents at every polling station and completed by lunchtime on Sunday March 30. And over the next couple of days, all the compiling was done in front of numerous witnesses including the police and Zanu (PF) polling agents at every polling station, in every ward and every constituency and the result there in each of the four elections was recorded and put up outside.
Zanu, police, public witnessed count
No complaints were publicly made, until last Friday when Zanu (PF) allegedly had to explain to Robert Mugabe – on the basis ostensibly and allegedly only of their OWN polling agents returns, as the official ones are still officially secret – why he lost, and even did so much worse than his party candidates in many areas. (vaka rovera bhora musango).
In terms of the results published by ZEC at polling stations and collated by MDC, MDC President Morgan Tsvangirai won the highest number of votes in 123 constituencies and Zanu (PF) President Robert Mugabe in 87 constituencies. That is a 58 per cent win of the 210 constituencies against Mugabe’s 41 per cent. What it means is that, based on constituency results and the first past the post system, Robert Mugabe was also defeated by his own party which won in 97 constituencies, whilst President Morgan Tsvangirai defeated Robert Mugabe, Simba Makoni, Zanu (PF) and MDC parliamentary candidates in some areas.
Present at every count were 11 ZEC officials, accredited observers (all approved by a government minister first), agents for each candidate (with Zanu (PF) agents inside and out) and police, as Robert Mugabe had personally and single handedly changed the electoral law just before the election to put his police inside the polling stations.
I say his police, since the Commissioner General publicly said he can only salute Robert Mugabe and not anyone else the people of Zimbabwe in their sovereign wisdom would have chosen as their president.
Other agents, observers and the public watched from a short distance outside. Nobody was allowed in or out during the count. Then six copies were made of every result, from each of the four ballot boxes in turn. They were signed not just by ZEC officials, but by party agents – including those of Zanu (PF). One signed copy of each return was then put up publicly outside. All five others were sent on to the ward centre, then the constituency centre, then the command centre. Can anyone hope to defraud Robert Mugabe in quintuplicate? How could any theft from him have happened so publicly, and been undetected, unreported for so long?
No command centre arrests
Individual ZEC officials are being arrested by police from around the country for having unlawfully robbed Robert Mugabe of votes, before any official result is released. For any theft or fraud to have occurred at any stage, many other people would have needed to be accomplices, including Zanu (PF) party agents and police. Why have they not ALL been arrested?
The number of copies made of every constituency return is unknown, but can be easily discovered. One was put up outside for the public for each election. Winners were announced. The time when all this happened at the constituency level can also be proved. Most, if not all, were finished by Sunday or Monday.
Long after each local announcement of the parliamentary seats, ZEC also announced the results at its National Command Centre. It said its delay was while it checked each one. So they checked the parliamentary results and announced the winners. So what has happened now?
ZEC is well staffed and has computers. If a local official cheated or perhaps made a mistake in entering or adding any returns – undetected by all those others watching him – ZEC would have discovered this before it made its own public announcement for that seat.
Yet it is ZEC’s public announcements that are being disputed now by Zanu (PF) and ZEC itself. If there was any fraud or error in any tally by some official, it was an error ZEC also made; yet no-one from its National Command Centre has been charged.
With so public a process, there surely can be no reasonable suspicion that Robert Mugabe has been robbed by anyone. Why now open the ballot boxes?
I speak for several members of my constituency and I believe several other Zimbabweans who feel that there seems to be no credible grounds to do so, but there is every reason to fear that the real reason for doing this is to suddenly find’ more votes for Robert Mugabe inside, in boxes kept guarded only by his officials and police, sealed with only their seals. They believe that this is being done to create a run-off, which people believe does not exist.
There is also a genuine fear by members of my constituency and several other people that the other reason is to find more votes for Zanu (PF) to rob MDC of its parliamentary majority. Others believe that the delays by ZEC are designed to buy time for Zanu (PF) to regroup before a run-off and close Zimbabwe’s democratic space by intimidating and beating up our fathers, mothers and grandmothers in the countryside to create an unfair advantage over MDC.
What do you tell the electorate – that we lost in the parliamentary and first round of the presidential elections so please vote for our president who will then govern with a minority in parliament? Give us a break and stop insulting the intelligence of Zimbabweans. Muri kunyangira yaona.
Jameson Zvidzai Timba is the MDC MP for Mt Pleasant.
There is every reason to fear that the real reason for doing this is to suddenly find’ more votes for Robert Mugabe inside, in boxes kept guarded only by his officials and police, sealed with only their seals.
Post published in: Opinions