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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The Devil that just will not die
Who said change was easy? Here we are, 14 days after the election and a
complete stalemate exists. Tonight Mugabe has announced that he will
not
attend the SADC summit on Saturday and this completes his admission
that the
election has gone against him and he is now acting completely outside
the
law and violating his own constitution. He has illegally reappointed
his
cabinet and continues in office as if he was still President. The
military
have deployed and today they banned all political activity. In effect
they
have staged a military coup.
The action started on Sunday two weeks ago, when just after lunch, the
CIO
and the National Command Centre told the President that he had lost the
election. At that stage the results were 58 percent, Tsvangirai, 27
percent
Mugabe and 15 percent Makoni. This resulted in a hurriedly convened
Politburo meeting and a decision to simply falsify the election results
to
give Mugabe a victory. When confronted by the security chiefs and his
own
staff and ZEC he eventually backed down and agreed to allow a result
that
showed Tsvangirai at slightly less than 50 per cent and a much improved
position for himself - a face saving formula.
Then came an effort to get him to step down, this was blocked by Mugabe
and
on the Thursday after the election, the Zanu PF leadership, working
with the
heads of the armed forces in the JOC, decided to hardball the
situation.
They decided to force a re-run, extend the period before the re-run to
90
days instead of the 21 days laid down in the Constitution and to
militarize
the run off, intimidate the population and the MDC and to threaten that
they
would 'go back to the bush if Mugabe was defeated'.
Regional leaders intervened and Zanu PF backed down - or appeared to
back
down. They held another politburo meeting and announced that they would
allow an audit of the V11 forms (requested by the MDC on Tuesday) and
if the
final count showed that Tsvangirai had less than 50 per cent of the
vote,
would insist on a re-run and allow the ZEC to run this on their own.
They
did not say what they would do if the vote were more than 50 per cent
in
favor of Tsvangirai.
ZEC then proceeded to bring all the V11 forms into town and a recount
of the
Presidential ballot was undertaken. This was completed by mid morning
on
Monday. Still no declaration of the result. Instead, Zanu PF produced a
list
of 25 constituencies where they alleged there were irregularities. To
support this they arrested 7 ZEC officials and charged them with
'under
counting the ballots for Mugabe'. They demanded a recount of the vote
in
those constituencies. This of course is a huge undertaking and illegal.
While this was going on, on Thursday they suddenly moved the whole of
the
ZEC office to a secret location. Denying the Chief Election Agents for
the 4
Presidential candidates access to the ZEC process. Even Simba Makoni
- one
of the candidates, was denied access. The Chief Executive of the ZEC, a
Zanu
PF functionary took over and even the Commissioners and the Chairman of
ZEC
seemed to have little influence over what happened.
On Friday (today) ZEC held a number of recounts. We (MDC) decided not
to
attend as the process was unlawful and unconstitutional and we had had
no
control of the ballot boxes since the election. In addition we heard
that
they were going to interfere with the ballots themselves. So instead of
the
MDC attending - we sent lawyers to protest the recounts as being
unlawful
and saying we would not witness the recounts and would not accept the
results.
What outsiders need to understand is just what happened during the
election
and why we can say with conviction that we won.
When each polling station closed its doors to the voters on Saturday
night
(over 9000 of them) the polling station staff from ZEC took a short
break
and then started the count. This was done in meticulous way. Each of
the
four boxes were opened, one by one and their contents poured onto a
table in
front of perhaps 10 to 20 polling agents (each candidate was allowed
one
polling agent - in my case that was 3 for the local government
candidates, 5
for the parliamentary candidates, 4 for the senate and 4 for the
presidential candidates - 16 in all). Each ballot was held up and
verified
and then the candidate voted for was noted and the ballot placed in
that
pile. When this was completed the piles of ballots were counted and
recounted and only after all were satisfied were the results recorded.
When this process was completed for each election and each candidate,
the
results were tallied and agreed - then the V11 form was completed by
the
Returning Officer (ZEC) and this was then signed - by each political
Party
representative and the Returning Officer as the official result. A copy
was
then posted on the door of the polling station.
The V11 forms were then taken to a Command Centre for each electoral
district. This meant there were command centers for the local
government
candidates, for the parliamentary candidates and for the senate. Only
the
presidential ballot returns were sent to Harare for collating at the
National Command Center. In the case of all the other candidates we
knew who
had been elected before lunch on Sunday - I knew I had been elected
by 6.30
on Sunday morning and was declared the winner by ZEC in my electoral
district.
So the critical thing to note is that the V11 forms are a legally
binding
document - signed by all parties to the election and verified at the
polling
stations. I had 48 hours to appeal the election and if I did not - it
was
taken that I accepted the results. After that, if I had wanted to
appeal the
result I would have had to go to the Courts and argue my case - but
the
ballot itself could not be the basis of this appeal. That was final.
When they were counting the presidential results (over 9 000 V11 forms)
it
was the MDC team to saw the very high ballot figures for some of the
Mashonaland constituencies and stopped the count - we then demanded
to see
the original forms and this took nearly 3 days to bring them into
Harare.
But already our own tabulations based on 90 per cent of the results
from the
polling stations (we did not have 100 per cent coverage) had given us
50,3
percent vote for Tsvangirai - even with the funnies in Mashonaland
that we
still have to investigate. It was this figure we then took to the
media.
We guessed that this would not change much in the remaining 10 per cent
of
the ballot and announced we had won the election. We were certain of
that
from leaks in the CIO and the ZEC itself. Now we understand the final
count
of the presidential ballot has been completed - without our observers
watching the process as laid down in the Electoral Act and we
understand
that Morgan Tsvangirai is in the lead by a comfortable margin of well
over
50 per cent - in fact much better than we had originally expected.
But the devil just will not lie down and die. They have staged recounts
of
the ballots (all illegal and having no force or effect) and are clearly
trying to do everything they can to get a re-run. In expectation that
they
will succeed, they have deployed senior officers to all electoral
districts
and have issued weapons to militia and the so-called 'war
veterans'. The war
was 28 years ago so most of the real vets are old or deceased. We are
seeing
a wave of violence against our activists and MDC structures. Clearly
they
think they can win a re-run using the tactics that served them so well
in
the past.
MDC will just not accept this state of affairs - we have said we won
the
election and when the ZEC finally gives us the result of their count,
this
will be proved, even after all this nonsense. We are saying we will not
condone a rerun as we won the election by more than 50 per cent. The
behavior of the State since the election pretty much declares as much.
We have been very patient and tolerant of Zanu PF behavior - as have
the
whole region and Africa as a whole. But now its time to stand up and
say no
more! If the election results are not announced soon or the crisis
resolved
by SADC leaders, we have said we will call on the country to basically
shut
down until they do, from next Tuesday.
SADC meets in the morning and bears a heavy burden in that they have to
defend constitutional government and legitimacy in the region. An
election
has been held - it was neither free nor fair and it was managed in a
totally
partisan manner. Even so, the MDC beat Zanu PF and it is time to tell
Mugabe
to leave office and allow his beleaguered country to start its long
road
back to sanity and recovery.
Eddie Cross
Bulawayo, 11th April 2008
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