An explanation emerged when another woman present gave an account of the COPAC meeting I had attended in Mbare which didn’t sound much like what I remembered of that occasion, where the whole process was hurried and slapdash, as if the organisers were ready to pack up and go quickly if the thugs appeared. After a little gentle questioning, this speaker admitted that she had only spent two minutes at the meeting.
That would make what we heard from Chinhoyi more credible. If that observer had spent only two minutes at each meeting it would have been most ill-mannered and rather stupid for anyone who was plotting mischief to do anything nasty in those two minutes. There would be plenty of time when she had gone to her next appointment for them to break up the meeting, swamp it with party faithful demanding that homosexuals be executed without trial by roasting over a slow fire, demand that everyone present pass a motion condemning that admittedly unpleasant little man Tony Blair to the same fate and crack a few skulls without further interference.
After all, the NGO professionals are often trying to cover too much ground, so they can’t stop to examine anything in depth. We, the people on the ground, can’t expect to leave all the work to them. We wear the shoe; we know where it pinches.
Neither can we leave the international specialists in “observing elections” to defend our democratic rights.
Somebody did draw up a set of guidelines on how to observe an election, but obeying them would take six months or a year of an observer’s time and how many can afford that? The guidelines (from the UN and AU, I think) say you need to observe the preparations for an election, how it is conducted and whether the people’s will, having been expressed in a free vote, is obeyed by the politicians, soldiers and other state hangers-on.
That means as soon as an election date is announced, observers should be there to check that every party contesting the election gets an equal opportunity to be heard, to speak to voters, to hold public meetings, to publish and distribute their election materials and they should get equal time on national radio and TV. Observers must be able to travel the whole country freely so as to meet all potential voters and they should be able to check the accuracy of the voters’ roll. Observing all this would keep quite a large team of observers very busy and that is only before the election.
During the voting, observers must be free to visit any polling station, checking that proper procedures are followed. They should be able to go anywhere in the country without prior announcement and without hindrance, so that they know what is happening even in deepest, darkest, remotest rural ZANUland.
Then, just when they want to get the first plane home after the close of voting, they should observe the counting and wait to see that the government elected by the people is installed and allowed to take office.
How many observers would be needed? And for how long? But if we are prepared, it only takes a few of us in each of the country’s thousands of wards or at each polling station to observe and share our findings. We have our own organisations and newspapers and we can find their phone numbers – now, so that we are prepared.
All this could help official observers to do their job, but we might still need to check on how they do it.
Post published in: Opinions & Analysis