CSOs rule out possibility of credible poll

According to the CISOMM Pre- Election report launched by the Zimbabwe Lawyers for Human Rights in Harare yesterday, the subversion of state power and resources to service partisan interests coupled with the limited access to a diversity of opinion rules out the possibility of free and fair elections.

“It is the opinion of CISOMM that the possibility of a truly free and fair election remains as remote as in any election in the last ten years,” read the report.

“Despite some legal reforms and procedural adjustments, the realities of our history including significant factors such as the attitudes of the incumbents and their well documented subversion of state power lead to a conclusion that the future of Zimbabweans could be in danger.”

Zimbabwe Human Rights NGO Forum Programmes Coordinator, Blessing Gorejena, said civil society said several issues had impacted negatively on the holding of a credible polls from key processes preceding voting day.

“The mobile voter registration disenfranchised a lot of people due to failure by the Zimbabwe Election Commission to provide a ward based mobile registration exercise, its lack of efficiency and failure to extend the registration exercise,” said Gorejena.

“The constitutional court ruling setting July 31 as the deadline to hold elections also impacted negatively on ZEC preparedness since the body had indicated through the Electoral Act that it required at least 42 days between nomination court and election day.”

Gorejena said the ‘chaotic special voting’ process was indication of the sincerity and justification of the court applications seeking a postponement of the July 31 deadline.

“During the special voting exercise, ZEC exhibited that it did not have the technical and material capacity to conduct credible polls.

The CISOMM report recommended that political parties should accept the results of a ‘reasonably’ free and fair election and use established methods of electoral disputes instead of engaging in acts of violence.

“As civil society organisations, we urge the Zimbabwe Republic Police to respond swiftly to reports of violence and to curtail them irrespective of the party affiliation of the perpetrators.

“Members of the security sector should behave professionally and ignore the biased declarations of allegiance by their senior commanders,” said Gorejena.

Crisis in Zimbabwe Coalition Director, McDonald Lewanika, implored ZEC to be transparent in its conduct and ensure that it executes its mandate according to the law.

He said: “The ZEC is appearing like it is a two headed creature. If it is true that vote counting is to be done at ward level, then it means that the body is riding over the law despite being headed by someone who is well versed with the law.”

Lewanika’s comments come in the wake of revelations by Movement for Democratic Change leader, Morgan Tsvangirai that the elections body had indicated that vote counting was going to be done at ward level and not at polling stations as stated by the law.