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Zimbabwe: Tsvangirai Threatens to Pull Out of Poll Amid Allegations of Collusion to Rig Elections
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The Zimbabwe Guardian (London)
20 March 2008
Posted to the web 24 March 2008
Ezekiel Chiwara
MOVEMENT for Democratic Change (MDC) president, Morgan Tsvangirai, who is also a presidential candidate in next week's harmonized poll, has threatened to pull out of the presidential race if the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission (ZEC) insists that the counting presidential votes will be done at a national command centre in Harare instead of having them counted at polling stations.
Speaking at a press conference Thursday afternoon, Tsvangirai alleged that ZEC had printed three million more ballots than the number of registered voters in order to manipulate the vote.
He said his party would go to the courts to try and force the election authority to have votes counted at polling stations. "I will not participate in the election if counting of presidential ballot papers is done at the so-called command centre. It is against the law," said Tsvangirai, who was flanked by senior MDC officials at the press conference. The move to have the results of the presidential ballot being released at the National Command Centre instead of the polling stations has raised concerns that ZEC was moving away from the agreed principles of the South Africa negotiated crisis talks. Zanu PF and MDC have agreed to a raft of changes on the electoral act.
ZEC has indicated counting of votes and announcement of results of council, Senate and House of Assembly elections will be done at polling stations while results of the presidential vote will be tallied and announced at the national command centre in Harare.
Asked to comment, ZEC chairman, George Chiweshe said his commission would wait for Tsvangirai to formally raise his concerns with the commission or alternatively take his grievances to court. "I do not understand what he is talking about. They should put their concerns to us and we will respond. Since this is potentially a court case, I would rather wait for their concerns," charged Chiweshe.
Tsvangirai is arguing that, under the new Electoral Laws Amendment Act, the counting of ballot papers has to be done at the polling station with the results pasted on every polling station although the Chief Elections Officer will do the actual official announcement of winners.
Tsvangirai also criticised a presidential decree by President Mugabe allowing police officers into polling booths to assist illiterate or physically incapacitated voters. It is the MDC's argument that the presence of police inside booths only serves to instil fear among especially rural voters who may not be well informed and may think police are there to ensure they vote for Mugabe.
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In most rural areas, police usually give the task of manning polling stations to members of the special constabulary. The opposition party has already filed an urgent application at the High Court seeking an order compelling the electoral commission to among other things disclose the number of ballots printed and permit an audit of the ballot papers.
The MDC has also asked the court to order ZEC to disclose the number of postal votes, identify postal voters, where they come from and where they will cast their votes. MDC claims that ZEC had ordered state-owned Fidelity Printers to print nine million ballot papers against 5.9 million registered voters. It is also alleging that the firm was also printing 900 000 postal ballots for the police, army and Zimbabwean diplomats abroad.
"We need to know why there is such a big difference. ZEC has to explain that, hence we have resorted to courts for recourse. The integrity and credibility of ZEC and the election result is very questionable," said Tsvangirai.
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