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Zimbabwe: 8,000 Ghost Voters Unearthed in Harare?
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Financial Gazette (Harare)
27 March 2008
Posted to the web 27 March 2008
Njabulo Ncube
Harare
FRESH allegations of attempts to rig this weekend's elections have emerged, with Morgan Tsvangirai's camp of the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) claiming a forensic audit of the Harare North constituency had revealed 8 000 ghost voters.
There is also further controversy from revelations by police officers at General Police Headquarters (PGHQ) of attempts to subvert their vote.
It is claimed that during postal voting, envelopes arrived bearing their force numbers, making it difficult for them to freely exercise their right to vote.
These claims escalate a raging fight between the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission (ZEC) and opposition groups over the printing of 9 million ballot papers for each of the four elections namely presidential, parliamentary, senatorial and local government, against a total of 5.9 million registered voters.
A document availed to The Financial Gazette details how police officers at PGHQ, the seat of Commissioner General Augustine Chihuri, are angry that postal voting "does not take place in a secret place" but in the presence of a "Chief Clerk".
When approached for comment this week, Wayne Bvudzijena, the police spokesman, said he would need to check on the reports.
"I don't know about those allegations. I am also yet to get my envelope," said Bvudzijena.
The Zimbabwe Republic Police (ZRP) applied for 8 000 postal ballots for the harmonised polls.
George Chiweshe, ZEC chairman, told observers from the Electoral Commission Forum and the Southern African Develop Community (SADC) on Tuesday that the police postal votes were already being processed.
Chiweshe said the ZRP was the only government institution that had applied for postal votes, dismissing reports that the army and other state security agencies had voted days ahead of the elections.
Tendai Biti, secretary general of the MDC, said his party had also been alerted to the controversy regarding the police vote.
He feared ZANU-PF would use the police and other security arms to facilitate multiple voting.
Justice Minister Patrick Chinamasa however dismissed the MDC's allegations of vote rigging.
In a lengthy interview with the ZBC on Tuesday, Chinamasa claimed the main opposition was already seeking a scapegoat for what he believes to be their imminent defeat.
"They (MDC) are preparing the ground to explain their defeat," said Chinamasa.
He also dismissed MDC claims that ZEC was biased. He said the MDC had nominated its own candidates to the ZEC board under SADC mediated talks, but said there was an agreement there would be no disclosure of which board member was nominated by which party.
"There are MDC members on the ZEC board. Tsvangirai knows who they are."
He dispelled fears of post-election violence should President Mugabe and ZANU-PF win.
"The majority cannot revolt against itself. There will be no violence. The MDC will be wiped out politically."
Biti said Chinamasa's utterances were self-delusion.
The MDC has lodged four urgent High Court applications to force ZEC to avail details on the number of ballot papers printed for the polls, release an up-dated voters' roll, explain the reduction of the number of polling stations in urban areas as well as address concerns about multiple voting.
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A forensic audit of a printed version of the voters' roll in Harare North has unearthed 8 000 ghost voters registered under an empty stand in a bushy, uninhabited area.
"It is the eve of the polls, but we still have all these discrepancies and disputes with ZEC but they are refusing to address them," said Biti. "There are millions of dead voters who we fear ZANU-PF will use. We have written to ZEC on how they intend to prevent multiple voting and to ask about what ink is going to be used. They have remained mum. We have been left with no choice but to seek recourse from the same courts in which we do not have confidence," he said.
The opposition has also taken issue with the latest ZEC requirement that only one election agent will now be allowed into a polling station due to congestion as a result of four polls running concurrently and in one day.
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