(HERALD) MDC admits elections cannot be rigged
MDC admits elections cannot be riggedBy Dambudzo Mapuranga
THE secretary-general for the main opposition party, Tendai Biti, has admitted that the just-ended harmonised elections cannot be rigged as the Sadc guidelines and amendments made to Zimbabwe’s electoral laws make it difficult for any form of rigging. Biti said this at one of the several Press conferences his party has given since the closing of polls in Zimbabwe on March 29.
Several observers and journalists have condemned MDC Tsvangirai for creating confusion and shifting the goalposts over the past few days.
In an interview with SABC correspondent, John Nyashanu, a local journalist asserted that MDC Tsvangirai was playing a dirty game where it makes conflicting statements through Biti.
On Sunday March 30, Biti was quoted as having said the MDC was confident that it had won the elections as reports coming in from the urban polling stations indicated that the party was at an advantage over Zanu-PF.
The following day Biti was claiming that the Government was delaying the release of results in order to rig. As results began to be released Biti then made a U-turn and announced that the elections could not be rigged.
Nyashanu pointed out that the MDC is at a crossroads and does not know which way to go.
On one hand, the MDC leadership needs to have a scapegoat if it fails to win the presidential election, but if it wins it then needs to acknowledge that the elections were free and fair because the results will be in their favour.
This shifting of goalposts is not something new for the MDC, as it has become a trend for the Tsvangirai-led group to make statements that are emotional and not informative.
A South African from the Institute of Peace was interviewed by the BBC on Monday night and pointed out that MDC Tsvangirai was finding it difficult to substantiate its claims of vote rigging and keeps on making baseless claims against the Government in the hope that eventually people will come to take such claims for fact. He also concurred with the reports that indeed the elections were free and fair. Unfortunately, this interview was cut short and this writer doubts the BBC will be re-airing it, as it certainly does not support the British line on Zimbabwe.
One reporter with Al- Jeezera has indicated that the MDC has been able to gain ground in the elections because of the Sadc-mediated talks that saw the Govern-ment of Zimbabwe creating a conductive political arena for free and fair elections.
The reporter then pointed out that Biti and his boss Tsvangirai prior to the elections scorned the inter-party talks as being a non-event and yet on March 31, Biti was on air thanking Sadc and South African President Thabo Mbeki for working hard to ensure the Zimbabwe elections were free and fair.
The same Sadc he had earlier on accused of ‘‘playing ping-pong with the people of Zimbabwe’’!
MDC leaders need to come up with one position on the elections and not create confusion among their supporters and the nation at large. As the situation stands, election results still need to be verified in light of reports that some ZEC officials were paid to tamper with results in favour of MDC Tsvangirai. However, conflicting statements by the opposition create a negative atmosphere which is not representative of the true mood of the nation that has been hailed by observers as having just voted in a calm, organised manner.
While several Western governments are jostling to voice their concerns over the delay in the releasing of results one wonders what the urgency is? This writer knows of several countries that have held elections and have released results weeks later. In the USA, for instance, results of the George W. Bush and Al Gore contest took over a month to be announced.
In Zimbabwe, the delay in the releasing of the results should, in fact, serve as an assurance to all parties and stakeholders that the ZEC is doing all it can to ensure there will be no question over the tallying of votes.
The ZEC is not a partisan body that does a shoddy job to appease one political party. In this case it cannot legally take results over the telephone from polling agents but has to collate results using the requisite documentation from all polling stations. Lest we forget, any party that loses can claim the results reported by the ZEC command centre were different from those recorded at polling stations. It is then prudent for ZEC to wait for all the actual papers from polling stations that all parties involved have signed, to be in their possessions before announcing the results.
The argument that the results are in the public domain and can therefore be released by anyone does not hold water given that if the circumstances were different and it was Zanu-PF releasing results unofficially, this writer doubts that Biti would take the situation as lightly as he expects the Government of Zimbabwe to do. In fact, this writer is quite sure there would be an outcry from the MDC and several diplomatic community members with US and British ambassadors at the forefront accusing Zanu-PF of undermining the electoral process.
There so-called results that the MDC has unofficially released after receiving them from its various functionaries across the country should not be consequential as there is a high probability that both the recipient and the receiver can doctor them. It is hypocritical that the MDC challenged the tallying of votes in 2005 alleging that the polling officers had phoned in correct results and that all tallying of votes should be done with the requisite papers at hand and yet now they are using that same method they faulted as flawed to proclaim their supposed victory in the polls.
Who has won or lost this election is important not only to Zimbabweans but also for Africa and the Westerners who bankroll the MDC.
The next few days are crucial and the people of Zimbabwe must maintain peace as the courts and ZEC decide on the presidential contest.
We must remain calm and peaceful as we wait for the results in the same manner we patiently queued to vote.
The resolve of the people of Zimbabwe should not shaken by the few elements that have dubious reasons to destabilise Zimbabwe.
Labels: ELECTIONS, MDC, TENDAI BITI
posted by MrK @ 2:08 PM
3 Comments:
It is easy to forget all the voices that long before the elections said that they would be rigged. What a strange dictatorship, where the opposition party can stand for government and win the majority of the vote?
But then, Zimbabwe has had elections since independence.
From The Inquirer:
Israeli startup accused of rigging Zimbabwe's elections
Coming soon: Florida
By Sylvie Barak: Thursday, 03 April 2008, 5:12 PM
A SMALL ISRAELI STARTUP has found itself embroiled in the political storm surrounding the recent Zimbabwean elections, with accusations that the ruthless dictator of 28 years, Robert Mugabe, has tried to use its software to rig the recent vote.
Cogniview, a data conversion software startup based in Israel, was accused by the newspaper “Zimbabwe Online” of providing software, able to alter PDF files, to Mugabe’s ZANU party, to change voter registration lists and rig the vote in their favour. They also accuse the company of working with the Israeli secret service, Mossad, to keep the dictator in power. Cogniview CEO, Yoav Ezer, told the Inquirer in a phone interview that he had been “completely surprised” by the allegations, adding, “they are science fiction to us”.
There is currently major tension in the African nation as election results trickle in at snail’s pace, increasing the suspicion by most of the country’s opposition and observing foreigners that Mugabe and his cronies are desperately trying to make last ditch attempts to falsify votes and keep themselves in power.
Ezer explained what he thought had led to the confusion about his company being spread through the Zimbabwean press. He claims that open source PDF converting software developed by his company a year ago, CC PDF converter (available for free online), which allows anything printable to be converted into PDF, was used by officials to compile voter data. The program adds a Creative Commons license to the last page of its documents, including a link to Cogniview’s website. The voter-roles provided to the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) by Zimbabwean officials were in PDF format and had this very link attached, on the final page. This led the MDC to jump to the angry conclusion that it was all an Israeli concocted Mossad plot, to fiddle with their democracy.
The accusations started coming in thick and fast, flooding the tiny ten employee company with accusations of selling “the Zimbabwean people for 20 pieces of silver” (or $3 million dollars as the rumours have it) by working for Mugabe. Eventually, Ezer realized that the accusations could seriously damage his company’s reputation, and went online to blog his refutation of them. The post, entitles “codswallop” says “here’s my official response … this story is NOT TRUE. In fact it could have only been more fictional if we were accused of using alien technology."
He also told the Inquirer that not only did Cogniview not have any connection to the Zimbabwean elections, they also had no prior connection to Zimbabwe whatsoever. Ezer added that he was happy that people in Zimbabwe appreciated his company’s software, but that it was free and available to anyone, anywhere.
Ezer also said that he had been in contact with an exiled MDC activist by the name of Phil Matibe, who currently resides in the US, and that Mr Matibe had promised to discuss the matter with party leadership in order to secure a retraction of the accusations.
To prove that his company had nothing to do with either Robert Mugabe or the Israeli Mossad, Ezer said that any “respectable party” (by which he means the UN, US, or European Union) who want to investigate the matter would get Cogniview’s full cooperation. He said that they would be given unlimited access to the company’s legal and financial records, and that they could feel free to interview any company employee. He added, “Heck, they can strap us all to lie-detectors - we have nothing to hide”. µ
Charges of rigging before Zimbabwe election
Zimbabwe, a nation in decline
In the midst of a desperate economic crisis, Zimbabweans go to the polls on March 29. Take a look at the country's tumultuous path since independence.
HARARE, Zimbabwe - The military patrolled the capital in armored personnel carriers Friday, a day after the opposition accused President Robert Mugabe of plotting to rig Saturday's elections.
The chiefs of police, army, air force, prison service and the intelligence agency told reporters that the armed forces were "up to the task in thwarting all threats to national security."
Many see the election as the strongest challenge yet to Mugabe, in power since Zimbabwe won independence from Britain in 1980. He faces both opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai, 55, and former ruling party loyalist and finance minister Simba Makoni, 58.
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In their first joint statement, Tsvangirai and Makoni said Thursday that their separate scrutiny of voters' lists showed severe discrepancies that open the way for fraud.
Tsvangirai urged voters at a rally Thursday to remain at polling stations after they voted to protect their votes, and he urged public servants not to help with fraud.
"Mugabe cannot rig elections by himself," Tsvangirai said. "If someone tells you to falsify the results of the elections, ignore the instructions, because it is unlawful. Don't be used to do something shameful."
Charges of stealing
Opposition officials said they had yet to receive full nationwide voters' lists. But they had enough problems to indicate "a very well thought out and sophisticated plan to steal the election from us," Makoni said at a news conference Thursday called jointly by the main groups opposing Mugabe.
Among those still on the voter lists are Ian Smith — the last white prime minister of Rhodesia, as Zimbabwe was known before independence in 1980, who died last year in South Africa — as well as his former law and order minister Desmond Lardner-Burke, who died nearly 30 years ago.
Also listed are the first two opposition activists assassinated during the 2000 election campaign, and two white farmers killed during government-sanctioned seizures of white-owned farmland.
And in one northern Harare district called Hatcliffe, thousands of voters were registered as living at addresses that turned out to be vacant lots, the opposition said. Photographs of the lots were shown to reporters, foreign diplomats and regional African election observers.
Mugabe denied the charges, saying on state television: "They want to tell lies, lies."
International observers barred
Zimbabwe has barred international observers from the United States and the European Union from Saturday's vote. Several international media organizations also have been barred from covering the elections.
Mugabe is accused of trying to buy votes by handing out tractors, generators and state-subsidized food in the country suffering an economic meltdown with inflation of more than 100,000 percent.
The agriculture-based economy was disrupted when Mugabe launched his agrarian reforms in 2000, forcefully taking fertile land from the country's white minority for distribution to the country's black majority.
On Thursday, the president handed 510 cars to doctors at Harare's main hospital, part of a project to halt the exodus of skilled Zimbabweans.
Arthur Mutambara, head of a breakaway faction of the Movement for Democratic Change, told Thursday's news conference that Mugabe's opponents set aside their political differences to challenge election organizers and regional observers to stop vote rigging which he said could spur "dire consequences" that might include violent revolt.
The security service chiefs, meanwhile, said "those who have been breathing fire about Kenya-style violence should be warned." More than 1,000 people were killed in the violence after a disputed presidential election in December.
March 23, 2008 -- Updated 1612 GMT (0012 HKT)
Mugabe accused of election-rigging plan
Zimbabwe's main opposition party says millions of extra ballot papers printed
Movement for Democratic Change secretary suspects elections will be rigged
President Robert Mugabe expected to face toughest challenge yet Saturday
Mugabe, 84, has ruled the African country for nearly 28 years
(CNN) -- The discovery of millions of extra ballots proves that President Robert Mugabe intends to rig next week's elections in his favor, Zimbabwe's main opposition party said Sunday.
President Robert Mugabe gestures during a pre-election rally in Harare on Saturday.
1 of 2 Tendai Biti, secretary general of the Movement for Democratic Change, said that leaked correspondence from the election commission showed it had asked the company that is printing paper ballots to make 9 million.
However, the African country has an electorate of 5.7 million registered voters, he said.
Also, 600,000 postal paper ballots were requested for soldiers and police officers, Biti said.
Postal ballots are usually requested for civil servants serving abroad, and the total number of soldiers and police in Zimbabwe add up to no more than 50,000, he said.
"Remember, when they stole this election away from us the last time, they stole it with 350,000 votes," Biti said. "Six hundred thousand is double insurance. They cannot win a free and fair election in this country."
The elections are slated for Saturday.
Mugabe survived a hotly contested presidential challenge from MDC leader Morgan Tsvangirai in 2002 amid widespread accusations of vote rigging.
The president's other challenger this time is former Finance Minister Simba Makoni, who recently announced his bid to unseat Mugabe and was promptly booted out of the ruling party.
Last week, New York-based Human Rights Watch raised doubts about the elections, saying it was likely to be "deeply flawed."
"As the elections near, all indications are that once again the people of Zimbabwe will not be able to freely exercise their civil and political rights and vote for the candidates of their choice," the nongovernmental organization said in a 48-page report.
The elections are expected to provide Mugabe with the toughest challenge yet in his nearly 28 years of rule.
The report said the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission was partisan toward the ruling Zimbabwe African National Union-Patriotic Front and had neither the expertise nor the resources to run the elections properly. Watch Mugabe threaten to expel companies under British rule. »
That report brought derision from a Zimbabwean official.
"What qualifies them to do what they're doing -- policing the world and Africa in particular?" asked Wilbert Gwashavanhu, political consul at Zimbabwe's embassy in Washington.
"Why don't they go to America and oversee how America holds its own elections?" he said. "Come on, give me a break! You can't judge the elections before they are held."
No matter the final outcome of the election, the international community may never find out whether the vote proved to be free and fair. Independent news organizations are banned from Zimbabwe, and there are no credible monitors in place.
Since 1980, the 84-year-old Mugabe has been the country's only ruler. But his odds of winning this time may be handicapped by Zimbabwe's dire economic situation.
The rate of inflation reported in January was 100,000 percent, and food and fuel are in short supply, the Human Rights Watch document said. With more than three in four Zimbabweans unemployed, few could afford such food and fuel anyway.
The country's downward economic spiral began in 2000, when Mugabe sanctioned the violent seizure of commercial farms, turning some of the land over to insiders and cronies.
For his part, Mugabe remains defiant, blaming his country's economic woes on the West.
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