His plot hinges on inflating the number of eligible voters and multiple registration of Zanu (PF) supporters in different constituencies to allow them to vote several times. The second part of the strategy involves relocating thousands of urban dwellers on the register to rural constituencies.
The plot was unveiled by MDC secretary-general Tendai Biti at an MDC rally held in Kuwadzana on Wednesday evening. He described the rigging plans as a "stinking plot."
“On the current voters’ roll, there are over six million registered voters. In reality we have about only two million genuine voters and the rest are ghost voters," Biti said.
“You will find an area that is infested only with snakes and birds being recorded as having 45 000 registered voters, while an urban area with thousands of people will only have 8 000 registered voters. Therefore, we need to clean up the voters’ roll before we go for the next elections to avoid a repeat of what happened in the past,” he said.
The plan has been tailor-made to fit Zanu (PF)'s overall presidential election strategy. A pilot phase proved successful in the 2008 run-off election where a shambolic voters roll was used. Registrar General Tobaiwa Mudede insists the roll is clean, and has challenged civil society groups questioning the integrity of the register to inspect it.
The South African Institute of Race Relations said in a recent report the register has “an impossible figure” of more than 40,000 people older than 100 years. The voters register contains names of 132,540 people more than 90 years-old, 4,368 of who didn’t appear on previous rolls, SAIRR said.
The report is based on a digital copy of Zimbabwe’s October 2010 voters’ roll, which hasn’t been publicly released. A total of 16,828 names on the roll were for people born on Jan. 1, 1901, it said. But Mudede dismisses these claims.
"Our system is programmed in such a way that it rejects any person below 18 years of age on data entry. Therefore minor children cannot appear on the voters' roll," he said.
"The RG has repeatedly requested the organisations that are making these allegations to come with names, or evidence for verification. To date such information has not been submitted to us."
Claims of people with more than 100 years appearing on the voters' roll is surprising as the Electoral Act did not discriminate such people from having their names on the roll, he said.
"You don't want these people to attain 100 years, you don't want them to be alive? The law does not say once one attains 100 years he/she should be removed. It is their right to vote unless they come to say they want to be removed. We will, however, still advise them that it is their right to vote," said Mudede.
On claims that the voter register contained names of dead people, he said: "If these are the ‘ghosts' political parties are talking about, then they must draw comfort in that the system currently in place would require positive identification before one is allowed to vote, which may not be the case with a dead person."
The SAIRR said the Zimbabwe voters register “is not only a wholly incredible document but an extremely dangerous one, which lends itself to all manner of electoral manipulation and ballot stuffing.”
The list of potential voters used in Zimbabwe’s previous parliamentary and presidential elections contained “at least” two million fictitious voters, it said. The registrar general should be replaced ahead of a referendum, expected to take place this year, and elections, the Johannesburg-based institute said in its report.
But President Mugabe's Zanu (PF) insists Mudede will run the next elections. Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai's MDC has called for the removal of Mudede in the administration of polls and called for a biometric voters roll.
Biti told the rally: “Voting in future will also not be as cumbersome as it was before. We will ensure that voters are able to register to vote and exercise their right. The police will not be involved in the voting process like before – they will only be there to provide protection and maintaining peace”.
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