Rigging machinery back in action

etc. The only way I managed to find a list was by virtue of being an MP, through the Parliament Reading Room, where I requested all the old newspapers back to the day Registrar General Mudede announced the exercise. I am only one of less than 300 MPs and Senators with access to this Reading Room. What about the other 11,700,000 citizens who are not so privileged?
This Mobile Voter Registration exercise – under the guise of a “National Births, Deaths, Marriages, Voter Registration and Citizenship” exercise – commenced on Monday 18 June, having been published just once on Saturday 16 June in the government-controlled Zimpapers publication “The Herald”.
I can no longer afford to buy The Herald every day. Therefore I missed the notice by the Registrar General, and it has taken me this long and some considerable research to find out where and on what date the Registration Schedule was published.
This means that most potential voters have not seen this notice, and are not aware that there is a voter registration process under way for next year’s municipal, parliamentary and presidential elections. The ramifications are obvious to anyone with an iota of intelligence. Only Zanu (PF) members will be informed where and when they should register, and indeed they will be herded to the registration centres on the right day by their village heads, chiefs, political commissars, etc, while the rest of us languish in miserable ignorance and become disenfranchised.
The second aspect which leapt to my eyes on studying this lengthy schedule is that, while everyone is supposed to be equal in this independent Zimbabwe of ours, some are much more equal than others! My own constituency, Harare North, has been given only 5 centres for people to register, and not one of those centres advertised is in low-density professional and business leaders’ area of Mt Pleasant and surrounds. (Mt Pleasant District Office is open every day for voter registration, etc. as a sub-office of the Registrar General, but is not advertised!) No, we have two centres in high-density Hatcliffe, two in medium-density Mabelreign and one in Marlborough, which, although low-density, is also down-market as far as income is concerned. Our total registration period is 20 days, and we share one team with Harare East, Mabvuku, Harare Central and Chitungwiza, ie 7 constituencies at present.
Compare this with other Districts, eg Zvimba District (Mugabe’s own District) which has 95 registration centres and 3 teams dedicated to it for the entire period 18 June – 17 August, ie 60 days, 3 times as long as Harare North. Ok, so there are Zvimba North and Zvimba South, two constituencies for the 19 times as many registration centres as Harare North, but there are approximately only twice as many residents in the two Zvimbas as in Harare North, being only once constituency, for 19 times as many registration centres.
What does this tell us about this exercise? It tells us that Zanu (PF) has done a very serious analysis and calculation of risks and possibilities in this election, and has come up with a strategy to increase their own constituencies drastically, using the “numbers game”, while seriously reducing the opposition’s opportunity to register our voters.
If we want confirmation, look at another District, Marondera. It has 72 registration centres and 3 teams over the entire period of 60 days. All the Harare constituencies have 48 registration centres between them for a population of some 1,5 million people, while Marondera has perhaps 250,000 voters to register at 72 registration centres.
This Voter Registration exercise is secret and politically correct. The ruling party will gain a large number of new constituencies, while the opposition is squeezed out of those constituencies it currently holds through both lack of information on the exercise and deliberate reduction in number of registration centres in opposition strongholds compared to Zanu (PF) strongholds.
Yes, the infamous rigging machinery is back in action. – Stevenson is the MDC (Mutambara) MP for Harare North