(HERALD) Massive voter turnout expected
Massive voter turnout expectedHerald Reporters
A MASSIVE voter turnout is expected today for the presidential run-off that pits Zanu-PF’s President Mugabe and Morgan Tsvangirai of the opposition MDC-T party that has since confirmed its participation in the House of Assembly by-elections to be held today.
The Zimbabwe Electoral Commission and the Zimbabwe Republic Police have both said they are prepared for the polls while President Mugabe has promulgated regulations on how the illiterate and physically incapacitated can be assisted in casting their votes today during the presidential run-off and the three House of Assembly by-elections.
The by-elections, being held in Gwanda South, Pelandaba-Mpopoma and Redcliff, were postponed after the death of MDC candidates who had been duly nominated before the March 29 harmonised elections.
In an interview yesterday, ZEC deputy chief elections officer (operations) Mr Utloile Silaigwana confirmed that ZEC had finalised preparations for the elections.
"We have distributed all the polling material and deployed all our electoral officers. The citizens of this country who are registered voters will have the opportunity to choose their President," he said.
ZEC, Mr Silaigwana said, had set up constituency command centres throughout the country while the national command centre was at the Harare International Conference Centre.
He said the commission had accredited a substantial number of local and foreign observers as well as journalists.
President Mugabe has promulgated regulations on how the illiterate and physically incapacitated can be assisted in casting their ballots during the presidential run-off and the three House of Assembly by-elections today.
Under the Presidential Powers (Temporary Measures) (Amendment of Electoral Act) (No 3) Regulations 2008 gazetted in an Extraordinary Government Gazette on Wednesday, a presiding officer, in the presence of two polling officers and a police officer on duty, shall assist the illiterate or physically incapacitated voters to vote according to their wishes.
If the wishes of the voter as to the manner in which the vote is to be marked on the ballot paper is not sufficiently clear to enable the vote to be marked, the presiding officer may cause questions to the voter as, in his or her opinion, are necessary to clarify the voter’s wishes.
The presiding officer shall, after ascertaining from the voter his or her wishes as to the manner in which he or she intends to mark the ballot paper, permit a person accompanying the voter in the presence of the polling and police officers to assist the voter to mark the ballot paper in accordance with the voter’s wishes and place the ballot paper in the ballot box.
The police have also said adequate security measures have been put in place and voters had nothing to fear.
The force’s elections committee commander, Senior Assistant Commissioner Faustino Mazango, issued a strong warning to some MDC-T elements that the police were prepared to deal with all those who might wish to disrupt the election after it emerged that they were distributing flyers in Harare, discouraging voters from participating.
Briefing journalists on the preparations for the run-off and by-elections yesterday at the Police General Headquarters in Harare, Senior Asst Comm Mazango assured the nation that the police had deployed enough officers for the polls.
"We urge eligible voters to exercise their democratic right and vote in an orderly and peaceful manner as adequate security arrangements have been put in place for their safety," he said.
Snr Asst Comm Mazango said it was evident that MDC-T was planning to disrupt the elections after the arrest of five suspected MDC-T youth activists in Gweru yesterday who revealed the opposition party’s plans to disrupt the elections.
"The suspects confessed that an MDC-T elected official had told them that their party’s leadership had realised that they had no support and that they should disrupt the elections by burning down polling stations so that voters would have no place to cast their votes in," he said.
MDC-T, he said, was using the youths to commit crimes in its bid to disrupt and discredit the
elections.
Snr Asst Comm Mazango said the youths were instructed to flee to Botswana after committing the criminal acts where they would be trained in as yet an undisclosed exercise.
"It is evident that the opposition MDC-T has plans to disrupt the elections. These counter-productive criminal activities would be met head-on and with the full force of the law.
"When arrests of those who commit such criminal acts are made, no one should cry foul as the law will only be following its course. Youths are discouraged from being used in such activities," he said.
Snr Asst Comm Mazango said Britain and America were planning to use MDC-T and civic organisations such as Women of Zimbabwe Arise, Zimbabwe Election Support Network, the Zimbabwe Lawyers NGO Forum and others to stage violent demonstrations in order to disrupt the presidential election run-off.
Police also appealed to Zimbabweans to vote peacefully and return home and wait patiently for the announcement of the results by ZEC.
"Any premature announcement of these results by anyone outside the constitutionally mandated body is a criminal offence. I need not remind you of others we have already arrested in connection with premature claims of victory," he said.
Snr Asst Comm Mazango said police were on the lookout for any attempts of fraud that marred the March 29 elections.
"The March 29 2008 elections, though conducted in a peaceful and orderly manner, were marred by widespread fraudulent activities by some ZEC officials. During the verification processes we came across undisputed evidence of manipulation of figures," he said.
He said some of the fraudulent activities included switching of figures between candidates, inflating and deflating of figures of some candidates, prejudicing some candidates, people being allowed to vote twice, allowing unregistered persons to vote, denial of registered voters to cast their vote and falsification of figures.
"All these are criminal acts and to date over 108 officials have been arrested and some have already been convicted in the courts countrywide," he said.
Snr Asst Comm Mazango said these fraudulent activities brought about a distorted result, thereby circumventing the will of the people.
"The distortion was a strategy by these who want to get into office by hook and crook, making the poll free but not fair. This time around any tampering with the voting process will result in immediate arrest and detention," he said.
posted by MrK @ 8:14 AM
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