The recommendation is contained in a publication by CIZC titled “Countering Electoral Manipulation: Strengthening Zimbabwe’s Chain of Democratic Choice” which was launched in the capital yesterday.
Crisis in Zimbabwe Coalition is a coalition of more than 350 civil society organisations. “Civil society must have a ready pool of 20, 000 local observers for the next poll based on the logic of two observers per polling station.
In the previous election, Zimbabwe had 9 111 polling stations and 18 222 observers could have been sufficient.. “We argue for a ready pool of 20, 000 observers because the Ministry of Justice is most likely to be late but swift in calling for observers.
As happened in the previous election, the Minister of Justice invited 11, 000 observers but only managed to deploy 8 000 observers due to time and other constraints,” says CiZC.
The coalition urged civil society organisations to rely on grassroots based organisations with structures in areas that are difficult to penetrate.
CiZC said CSOs should lobby for additional polling stations in areas such as Harare where there was “spatial distribution of polling centres” in the previous election.
According to the CiZC publication, CSOs should intensify campaigns to lobby the Southern African Development Community to deploy early election observers as well as strengthen the system of local long-term observers.
“Civil society must advocate for the non-partisan recruitment of polling officers. This is out of the realisation that it is now a Herculean task to push the reconstitution of the ZEC Secretariat, especially the exclusion of prominent people that were associated with manipulating elections whose outcomes have been contested since 2000,” reads the publication.
According to CiZC, information, inclusion, insulation, integrity and irreversibility are critical elements in guarding against manipulation of electoral processes.
“Citizens need to have access to alternative choices, that is both to aspiring candidates and their policies. For this to happen, there is need for citizens to have access to plural sources of information and there is also need for candidates to have equal access to public space.
“All citizens must have equal right to participation without any hindrances, legal or practical to universal suffrage. Violation of this norm might include the election and informal or practical hindrances such as difficult access to registration centres, demand of proof of residence and partisan registration,” read the publication.
Concern has been raised over Zanu (PF’s) monopoly of the public media. The MDC-T is on record saying some of its supporters are failing to register due to the partisan conduct of officers from the Registrar General’s office while proof of residence has proved to be a huge obstacle for many aspiring voters.
The CiZC publication recommended that the electorate should be protected from intimidation to allow them to cast their votes freely, saying honest counting of votes was a pre-requisite for democratic elections.
“The use of the secret ballot is meant to insulate people from outside pressure, undue influence, intimidation, threats, coercion, bribery or even verbal disapprovals of their choice. Trends such as voter intimidation or harvest of fear violate this link.
“Once citizens have voted, their votes must be counted honestly,” read the publication. The publication said that after an election, winners should be allowed to take power without any form of resistance or frustration.
Senior army personnel have on several occasions vowed to resist Morgan Tsvangirai’s ascendancy to power even if the MDC-T wins in an election.
Post published in: News