The 1980 Election allocated 57 of the 80 Parliamentary seats to ZANU PF by a non-constituency system of national proportional representation. This was followed by the relatively peaceful 1985 Election which was preceded by the demarcation of formal Constituencies. As a result ZANU PF increased its Parliamentary share to 64 seats because as the incumbent Government they had judiciously marked out Constituency boundaries using demographics that diluted opposition support. This constituency delimitation is the first electoral corruption currency traded by ZANU PF.
In spite of the calm prior to and during the 1985 Election, the following week saw the then black suburbs of greater Harare sink into a deadly hell of riots which killed six people and injured dozens. Prime Minister Robert Mugabe was blind, deaf and dumb to the pandemonium in the locations for three days while opposition members were being tortured while their houses, cars and property were being stoned, torched or looted. Law enforcement agents such as the police or army were nowhere to be seen for the three days after which they went into action when the Prime Minister announced that there had been “enough violence”. The late Dr Nathan Shamuyarira (Minister of Information and Tourism 1980 – 87) boasted at a private meeting that that violence had been centrally orchestrated specifically as an advance campaign strategy for the 1990 Election. This extended pre-election violence and intimidation is the second electoral corruption currency traded by ZANU PF.
Zimbabwe is prone to hunger due to either too little rain or too much rain or excessive hailstorms. Food Aid donated by the International Community often circumvents multiparty officials only to be distributed by ZANU PF loyalists who then hand it to fellow loyalists or those who can wield a ZANU PF Membership Card on demand. This selective delivery of Food Aid is the third electoral corruption currency traded by ZANU PF. It is particularly powerful in the Rural Districts where ZANU PF must maintain its stranglehold.
On Election day itself obvious ZANU PF activists employed as official marshals or the sight of Paramilitary Police in riot gear in the vicinity of the Polling Station intimidate opposition voters into voting for ZANU PF or not voting at all, paving the way to pseudo victory by the incumbent Government. Such intimidation constitutes a potent electoral corruption currency.
ZANU PF stealthily manipulates modern technology not only for its selfish ends but especially for the maximum oppression and silencing of Zimbabweans. To this end it is introducing a new electoral corruption currency: the Zimbabwe Computer Crime and Cyber Crime Bill which will curtail people’s access to each other and to information to which they have a right. We are in trepidation as the 2018 Presidential Elections approach.
Post published in: Featured
What you have said here is true. Prime Minister Robert Mugabe even encourage his party supporters to terrorise opposition supporters boasting that the thugs were removing “zvigutsa” (political stump).
The blatant cooking up of the vote count and wanton violence of 2008 have left no one in any doubt of the sheer futility of holding elections without first doing something to stop the vote rigging. SADC spelt out the democratic reforms we needed to implement. Sadly, Morgan Tsvangirai and his MDC friends who were tasked to implement the reforms failed to get even one reform implemented. Worse still, MDC leaders are today the ones encouraging the people to continue the madness of contesting flawed and illegal elections on the promise the opposition will win rigged elections!
It is a great pity that there has been too few ordinary Zimbabweans with the common sense to stand up to not only President Mugabe and his Zanu PF thugs but to Morgan Tsvangirai and his corrupt and incompetent friends and demand the implementation of the reforms BEFORE elections!
Making sure we have free, fair and credible elections is the holy grail for Zimbabwe because nothing of substance will ever be accomplished until we do something to end the Zanu PF dictatorship.