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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This is just a Farce
Here we are - three weeks after the election and they are still
refusing to
say who won the ballot for the post of President. The reasons are
obvious -
Morgan won and they just cannot work out how to handle the situation.
They
know the result and are trying to avoid the inevitable consequences of
making it public. Had Mugabe won, they would have been crowing 24 hours
after the election!
When the polls closed on the 29th March counting was done at each
polling
station and the results posted on the doors of the polling stations in
the
form of a copy of the form V11 that recorded the result of the count
and
from then onwards provided the legal basis of the final tally. While
the
final results of the local government, House of Assembly and Senate
seats
were determined locally in each electoral district; the presidential
poll
was tabulated at a national control center in Harare.
The results of each election were duly announced within 48 hours in all
electoral districts with the exception of the presidential one, which
was
national. This final tally was started on Tuesday morning when all the
results from all electoral districts had been communicated to the
national
control center. This was done as required by the law, the 4 Chief
Election
Agents for the four candidates sat at a table with the ZEC officials on
the
other side and they scrutinized the results for each electoral district
working by Province.
Harare and Bulawayo came and went - all were reasonably satisfied as
the
results of ZEC were more or less in line with our own records taken by
polling agents at the polling stations. Then they started Mashonaland
Central. When the MDC team saw the figures and noted that they were
completely different from the results for the Cities (very high voter
turnouts, in one case exceeding the numbers of voters on the voters
roll),
they stopped the verification and counting process.
The MDC CEA said to the ZEC officials that he wanted to see the
original V11
forms for every polling station - over 9000 of them. He went further
and
said that the MDC had photographed the V11 forms at each station and
had a
record of the poll. He said that their count was to the effect that
Morgan
had won by 50,3 percent and he said that he expected ZEC to disprove
that
figure. That was the start of the problems.
ZEC then spent the next three days getting all the forms into Harare
and by
Friday this process was complete. They did not start the verification
process but instead did a count behind closed doors and in complete
secrecy.
Even the Commissioners and Candidates were excluded from the process.
By
Monday they had a final result - it showed well over 50 per cent for
Morgan
Tsvangirai and this information was promptly leaked to the MDC.
They then put the damage control system into high gear. The ZEC center
was
closed down and the whole operation including all records moved to a
secret
location. When this location was discovered, military guards barred
people
who tried to get to the new center - it was a 'high security
area' they were
told. Publicly the only information released by the ZEC at this time
was
that the results were 'sensitive' and disclosure was not in the
'public
interest'.
Then the ZEC came out with a spurious claim that Zanu PF candidates had
lodged appeals against the results in 25 constituencies. This they said
justified the ZEC conducting a recount of the 25 electoral districts to
discover what mistakes had been made in the count. Remember in all of
these
districts the results had already been announced by ZEC and made public
on
the television and radio. By law such appeals had to be lodged within
48
hours - it was now 10 days since the election.
It was clear to the MDC that this was a blatant effort to overturn its
Parliamentary majority and to distort the presidential vote. We went to
court to stop the recount, which in our view was both illegal and
unconstitutional. We won the case but ZEC has insisted that it will go
ahead
with the recount and has scheduled this for 23 constituencies for this
coming Saturday - 3 weeks after the election itself and 11 days after
they
had confirmed that Morgan had won the election by a wide margin.
Then came the SADC summit - Mbeki was able to bulldoze his way to get
a
resolution that basically endorsed the stance taken by ZEC, even though
it
was patently obvious that the whole process was illegal. Behind the
scenes
he tried to engineer a situation where he would negotiate between the
parties to the 'dispute' and arrange a government of national unity
in a
manner similar to what has been negotiated in Kenya. MDC would never
accede
to such duplicity and countenance a deal with Zanu PF. and that
initiative
fell flat on its face.
Right now a full-blown diplomatic storm is taking place as clearly
shown in
the Security Council debate last night. Mbeki personally chaired the
Council
and it was a massacre for him. He tried to keep Zimbabwe off the agenda
and
instead it totally dominated the discussions as leader after leader
hammered
away at the illegality of what was happening and the serious nature of
this
sort of behavior, subverting as it does, the whole electoral process
and
democracy in Africa as a whole.
Just as importantly, at the international Parliamentary Forum in Cape
Town,
many speakers alluded to the crisis in Zimbabwe. One said that Africa
had to
define what it meant by democracy and to decide if this sort of blatant
abuse of democratic process was acceptable. It was called a threat to
the
stability and security of Africa as a whole - a very serious charge
and one
that is absolutely true.
While all of this was going on, Zanu PF was making its own plans and
they
did not in any way include adhering to anything the outside world said,
including the SADC resolutions. They planned to rig the recount and
this was
put into action using military bases and compliant officials. Then, in
anticipation of a result that would give them a Parliamentary majority
and
reduce Morgan's vote to less than 50 per cent, they are planning a
campaign
for the re-run.
We have new intelligence that it is their intention to delay the
announcement of the results of the election until the 6th or 7th of May
and
to then target the 26th May for the re-run. This sleight of hand will
give
them eight clear weeks to implement their 'election programme'
called 'where
did you vote?' They have deployed commanders to all electoral
districts
together with militia who have been armed and are paid special
allowances.
These irregular forces are now unleashing a reign of terror on the
rural
population. Hundreds are being beaten and their homes burned. A number
of
people have already been killed. Food is being tightly controlled and
we can
expect traditional leaders to be co-opted or abused.
Of particular concern is a consignment of arms from China that has been
held
off Durban by the South African authorities for three days now and
contains
a large consignment of arms and ammunition destined for Zimbabwe. The
South
Africans are holding this up because its documentation was not in
order.
They do not say they will block its delivery. That we are buying arms
when
we cannot feed our people is a disgrace. That China can supply this
rogue
regime arms with which to suppress the people of Zimbabwe is a
demonstration
of their willingness to support such regimes.
Plans are afoot to rig the re-run and to restrict the ability of the
urban
voters to cast their votes. The media is under even tighter control and
MDC
leaders are being specifically targeted. They will again use the threat
that
if we do not vote for Mugabe in the runoff, they will 'go back to the
bush'.
Today they said that Morgan's recent actions were consistent with
'treason'.
Closer to home two activists who were caught distributing MDC pamphlets
in
Bulawayo were today jailed for 8 months. What a travesty of justice in
any
language.
Eddie Cross
17th April 2008
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