2008 Articles 25 Dec Kingdom Come 21 Dec Christmas 15 Dec Step Forward 5 Dec Beginning 1 Dec Amendment 30 Nov Facilitation 26 Nov Genocide 24 Nov Running Out 17 Nov Crisis 15 Nov Somalia 12 Nov What Next? 8 Nov Leadership 2 Nov Chipo 1 Nov Rome Burns 29 Oct Failure 25 Oct High Noon 19 Oct Never Easy 10 Oct Abyss 8 Oct Filibustering 4 Oct Chaos in Zim 29 Sept A Mule? 21 Sept On Step 16 Sept The End 12 Sept New Beginning 11 Sept Deal? 6 Sept Consequences 3 Sept Need a Deal 2 Sept Dollar Died 31 Aug Steering 29 Aug Unstuck 23 Aug Betrayed 18 Aug The Devil 13 Aug 13 Aug 08 12 Aug Today 11 Aug Cliffhanger 8 Aug Whats Going On 27 Jul Progress 22 Jul Agree to talk 21 Jul Mbeki kicks 16 Jul Crunch Time 13 Jul Economics 9 Jul Reality Looms 2 Jul Where? 30 Jun Looking Glass 26 Jun Battle 22 Jun What Now? 21 Jun The Commitment 16 Jun Do or Die 13 Jun Morning After 10 Jun Closing Doors 26 May Current Outlook 24 May Fan Club 19 May Tyranny 17 May End Game 15 May Flushing 8 May Violence 6 May Bizarre Process 25 Apr Cornered 20 Apr Electoral Fraud 19 Apr Jesse 17 Apr This Farce 11 Apr The Devil 6 Apr Wounded Buffalo 1 Apr Dying Kick 31 Mar Politcl Tsunami 27 Mar Current Situ. 26 Mar 4 days to go 21 Mar 8 days to go 15 Mar Election Time 27 Feb Games Begin 17 Feb Public Office 11 Feb Choices 4 Feb Decision Time 26 Jan Ambushed 25 Jan The Struggle 20 Jan Truth or Fiction 12 Jan Mugabe Mistake 8 Jan Surprise 2 Jan Kenya Lessons
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Election time in Zimbabwe
We are watching the US primaries with great interest. It is not just
that we
have a candidate who is half African in the joustings, but also because
it
is so dissimilar to our own experience. The media coverage in the US is
total, no stone is unturned and any glitches by the candidates are
analyzed
ad nauseum.
Here it is quite simple - you see virtually nothing of the opposition
on TV
nor hear its views on radio. The State controlled newspapers pour out
propaganda on a daily basis and not a word about the opposition in
constructive or analytical terms. No debates, very little advertising
(most
of our adverts have been rejected by the State media).
Then there is the rigging - starting with a voters roll with 3
million (50
per cent) ghost voters on it, hundreds of thousands of citizens -
even those
born here, denied the vote on some spurious grounds. We are denied the
voters roll in an electronic version because it gives us the capacity
to
analyse the thing and to demonstrate its distortions and errors. In
fact it
is not widely known that the new Electoral Act says we can have such a
copy
at a 'reasonable' price - when we got one it comprised over 200
discs with
digital photo's of pages of the voters roll - each page with a red
line
across it to complicate scanning. Totally useless as a digital copy.
Then comes the delimitation - we estimate the population split at 65%
urban
and 35% rural. The split in terms of electoral districts comes out -
76%
rural and 24% urban. Now they have just given us the polling stations
and
this shows that on average there are 500 voters per polling station in
the
rural areas and close to 2000 in urban areas! Since it will take on
average
about 5 to 7 minutes to process one voter at a polling station they can
only
handle 144 voters in 12 hours - three lines in each polling station
- that
is 432 per day. On this basis it will take 5 days to capture the total
number of voters in Harare and three to four days in Bulawayo.
ZEC proposed 310 polling station in Bulawayo - I see we got 207, we
said to
ZEC we needed at least 400. In 2002 people in Harare and Bulawayo and
to
some extent in the other main towns, queued for up to 4 days to cast
their
vote and were finally chased away from the polling stations by riot
police
and dogs. 400 000 voters were denied their vote, Mugabe 'won' by
just over
400 000 votes. . For this reason we can expect real problems in the
urban
areas if we do not get more polling stations - at least twice as many
as are
now listed.
The majority of the padding of the voters roll is in the rural
districts
where Mugabe expects the bulk of his vote to come from. It is also in
the
rural districts where he has used his control of the electoral
machinery to
rig past elections. He expects to be able to do the same again this
year.
We also have problems when it comes to the supervision of the vote in
the
rural areas. For this purpose we are training thousands of polling
agents
who will represent us at every polling station in the country. They
will sit
inside the station and watch the procedures during the day and then
they
will supervise the actual count. We then plan to report the result of
every
polling station to a central command centre and from where we will
announce
the result - irrespective of what the State machinery does. From this
system
we plan to check the official results as they are announced and from
this we
will be able to see any discrepancies.
For this to happen we need volunteers to help with the actual poll in
Zimbabwe. We need at least 4 mobile units in every rural district. Each
volunteer should have his own vehicle - 4x4 or a robust 2x4 at the
very
least, camping gear for three nights and food and fuel. People who want
to
volunteer should contact Roy Bennett in South Africa (082 3884985) or
myself
(091 2227 144). We will provide orientation, guides and security plus
some
local communications gear. Volunteers will be deployed into the rural
districts no later than Friday - spend all Saturday until the vote is
completed and then collect the results, see they are communicated to a
command centre and then be free to go home or join the rest of us for
the
party!
As for the question of observers, we now know whom they regard as being
'friendly'. Quite a useful list for us as it also suggests to the
opposition
who are not likely to be 'friendly' when we finally capture State
House.
SADC and the AU have sent observer missions, the SADC group led by that
icon
of democracy in Africa, Angola. They lost no time in saying that in
their
view the elections would be free and fair.
On the ground the campaign is intense. Our rallies and meetings are
drawing
large crowds and have an atmosphere of energy and vitality. The poster
war
is well underway - we had Zanu PF pulling down ours last week - the
life of
one of our posters is about a day, not more unless it is pasted onto a
wall
20 feet off the ground.
We are still facing harassment and violence on the ground. Zanu PF
thugs
seem to be free to do what they will and we have a number of people in
hospital at present. The Police are restricting our activities in many
ways
and this is frustrating. Approval for meetings is also difficult to get
and
then results in the CIO attending all our meetings even when they are
closed
MDC meetings for supporters only.
But hey, who said building democracy was easy. We know it is essential
and
now it's just a question of getting the job done as quickly and as
painlessly as we can. We chose this road back to freedom, not via guns
or
violence. We chose peaceful, democratic legal change as the only way we
were
prepared to fight for change. Will we get it this time? I think we will
but
it is not going to be easy or painless or cheap. Even if we do win this
time - we still face the hurdle of compliance by the local
authorities.
If you are not already in the fight, think about what you can do to
help us
win this battle. The outcome is vital for all of Africa, not just this
little central African country.
Eddie Cross
Bulawayo, 16th March 2008
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