A number of police officers revealed to The Zimbabwean early this week that Commissioner General Augustine Chihuri, a staunch Zanu (PF) apologist, had stepped up his desperate bid to keep President Robert Mugabe and his party in power with an operation that has swept through all police structures.
“The MDCs and other political parties are wasting time talking about security sector reforms and fighting over election dates. Vote-rigging is already taking place inside police camps,” said a senior police officer based in Harare.
“The reforms are necessary, but the best thing to do right now is to ensure that rigging is prevented, or we will see a repeat of the 2008 scenario, where juniors were forced to vote for Zanu (PF) in front of their superiors. Remember we are talking about nearly 100,000 votes in the ZRP alone,” he said.
Chihuri has instructed police provincial, district and station commanders to force their subordinates and their dependants who live inside camps to register for special voting, meant for only “disciplined forces”.
“Chihuri is taking this as a postal ballot and has turned district and provincial commanders into district education and provincial education officers. Yet this should be the work of the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission, which is not involved in this exercise, as was the case in 2008,” said another senior officer.
“The other parties must act now and stop the Commissioner from his act of turning police stations into polling stations. He has also ordered officers commanding districts to play a voter education role in which they are openly campaigning for Zanu (PF) and forcing junior officers to register for elections, where they will in turn be forced to vote for Zanu (PF).”
Chihuri is said to be also forcing civilian staff, members of the neighbourhood watch committee and police dependants living in camps to register for special voting.
“The junior officers have been threatened with a reduction in rank and salary or outright dismissal if they fail to register to vote in this system, while their dependants and employees have been threatened with eviction,” said a Bulawayo-based Chief Superintendent.
“Members of the Kuyedza club and other police dependants have thus, been registered for special voting, which will be conducted by police commanders in the absence of ZEC officials and polling agents and held under duress. This is exactly what happened in 2008, when dependants were told that junior police officers would in the firing line if they failed to rescue Mugabe from defeat in the re-run.”
According to Section 81 of the Electoral Act, special voting, done a few weeks before the actual election day, is meant for members of the defence forces, police and the prison services, who will be deployed to perform security duties and persons who will be on duty as electoral officers on election day. They have to be deployed away from the constituencies they are registered in.
They also have to vote in the nearest district centres to where they are stationed in under conditions that are similar to those at normal polling stations, except that they must produce special voting specialisation.
“The ZRP’s Standing Orders Volume One Section 16 prohibits political meetings in stations and police camps and political canvassing to support any political party, yet Chihuri has revived the so-called Police Project Meetings, which are mainly rallies he uses to campaign for Zanu (PF), which he first established in 2008,” said another Chief Superintendent.
“Just recently, three junior police officers were sentenced to 14 days imprisonment in Chikurubi after they had attended an MDC-T rally in Guruve, yet Chihuri himself attended a Zanu (PF) conference in Gweru. Assistant Commissioner Oliver Mandipaka is openly campaigning for Zanu (PF) in Buhera and Assistant Commissioner Cornelius Muzeza is campaigning for the same party in Gokwe without any questions.”
The senior officers called on the MDCs and other political parties to “wake-up” and stop the rigging. If what is happening in the ZRP is also taking place in the other security forces this could give Mugabe an unfair advantage of more than 300,000 votes.
“Remember that there are also ghost officers that are more than 10,000 in the ZRP alone. What then will be the impact of this if it remains unchecked? It will be best to disallow special voting and postal balloting to prevent this rigging,” said an Assistant Commissioner.
Post published in: News