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The Right to Vote
In 1949 I stood at the fence of my school and watched hundreds of
people
march past with banners and making a great deal of noise. The Police
and
Army were all over the place - I thought it was very exciting. It was
the
start of the struggle in this country for the right to vote.
It started with Rhodes who said in a document that he wanted "every
civilized man to have the right to vote". Who was a "civilized man" - a
"man
who had some education and owned some property". It was the first
expression
of what became known as the qualified franchise. This was applied, more
or
less, up to 1964 when it was finally abandoned for a racially defined
right
to vote. This excluded the great majority of people from the voters
roll.
The African Nationalist leaders had never been in favor of the
qualified
franchise. They knew that when this threatened the hold on power of the
white minority, the standard would simply be raised and ambitions
thwarted.
What they demanded was "one man, one vote." This was the strident
demand of
the NDP, then Zapu and then Zanu. It was the rallying cry of the
liberation
war; it defined the principal objectives of the struggle for power.
This past week, the Chief Justice of Zimbabwe, sitting with a full
bench of
the Supreme Court, said that the right to vote was not a fundamental
right
of a citizen. This was in response to a Court challenge brought by
people
living outside Zimbabwe who want to vote in the forthcoming election.
The
Court reserved its judgment.
So now it is out in the open - the universal suffrage that tens of
thousands
gave their lives for in 30 years of struggle was a sham. All they
wanted was
power, the right to use the State to plunder the resources of the
country
and to impoverish the people.
But while we may reel at such a statement, it is the lengths to which
these
self-serving leaders will go to preserve their hold on power that
astonishes
me. I was part of the transition team in 1980, helping with the
changeover
from the Rhodesian era to the new Zimbabwean State. We ran the first
election and used the former Rhodesian administration to do so.
Rhodesia was
many things - but the one thing that it had was a small but very
competent
and dedicated civil service. The first election was conducted on the
basis
of a genuine one person, one vote basis. All you had to do was go to
the
nearest polling station and produce your ID and then vote.
And vote we did - over 85 per cent of the total population voted - many
with
tears of joy. The result - almost every person in the country voted for
the
men and women who had brought about this unique opportunity. The old
regime
attracted less than 3 per cent of the vote. As a result, the transition
was
peaceful, the planned Rhodesian army coup did not materialize and the
four
armies that had fought each other gave up their weapons and went home.
Not a
shot was fired in anger, it was an astonishing achievement.
A short while later I sat in the Stadium where we launched our new
democracy
and watched as units of the different forces - the Rhodesians, Zanla
and
Zipra, the Police all paraded and saluted the new leadership and the
symbols
of our freedom.
In 2000, after 20 years of Independence a new generation of leadership
launched its own bid for power through the same ballot boxes that had
been
used in 1980. How naïve we were then! We honestly believed that the
regime,
which had fought for our independence and democratic rights, would let
us
vote for change. We were mistaken and we paid a high price for our
naivety.
The Mugabe led regime launched a programme of terror and deception that
gave
rise to the total subversion of the democratic values that had been
fought
for by successive generations of Zimbabweans. The State since then has
done
everything in its power to ensure that less than half the eligible
population is allowed to vote, that the conditions under which they
vote are
neither fair nor free and that the information reaching the average
voter is
completely distorted by propaganda and lies.
And when we finally get to the actual day and go into the voting
station,
there is hardly a person who does not think that "they will steal the
election" from us. It would now seem as if all the elections since 1980
have
been rigged to a greater or lesser degree. The specter of helicopters
flying
full ballot boxes to polling stations in 2002 is still fresh in our
minds.
It is no accident of judicial history that of the 38 electoral
challenges
launched in June 2000, only 12 have been heard and 2 finalized. That
the
challenge to the outcome of the presidential election result in 2002
has yet
to be heard. The plain truth is that no Bench, no matter how warped by
political appointees could be trusted to judicate on such matters
without
seriously embarrassing the State and its regional defenders.
And now the Chief Justice has the audacity to say that the right to
vote is
not a fundamental right worthy of protection under the laws of the
country.
What a mockery of our history, what a disgraceful exhibition of
judicial
appeasement with a corrupt and tyrannical regime.
The right to vote, in secrecy and safety, must be the most important
single
political right a citizen can hold. It is by these means that they can
change their leaders and the policies they represent. Apart from the
gun or
street violence there is no other way in which they can seek to improve
their lives and protect their interests.
MDC may have been naïve to think that the Mugabe regime would allow a
democratic transition - but rather naïve than we give up and go "back
to the
bush" with the threat that we draw our country into the kind of morass
that
has enveloped Somalia and the Sudan.
We remain committed to fighting this cause in democratic ways,
believing
that ordinary people have extraordinary wisdom and intelligence and
will
know what to do when they get the chance to vote on the 31st March
2005. But
as I have said before such activity takes an awful lot of money and
effort -
just getting the tens of thousands of polling agents out to the polling
stations and seeing to it that they are trained and have the resources
to
supervise the poll will cost billions.
Billions we do not have. All we have is our courage and commitment to
the
country and our democratic values. If you want to help, but cannot vote
or
join us in the struggle on the ground on the day - then help us find
the
money we need to win.
The campaign is intensifying by the day. MDC still has no access to the
State controlled media, our people are still being arrested on a daily
basis
for all sorts of things - image a three year sentence for three young
people
caught putting posters up in a small town - right next to the posters
of the
ruling Party! We still have to have Police approval for every kind of
gathering and cannot even conduct training sessions or closed strategy
sessions with activists without CIO observers present. But as Dave
Coltart
said - perhaps this is the only time they will be able to hear the
truth!
Eddie Cross
Bulawayo, 26th February 2005.
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