allAfrica.com: Zimbabwe: Mugabe to 'Steal' Polls (Page 1 of 2)

A SECRET taskforce of security and electoral personnel has been put in place to ensure embattled President Robert Mugabe and his ruling Zanu PF win an absolute majority in tomorrow's high-stakes elections.

The team, headed by Central Intelligence Organisation (CIO) operatives tasked to ensure Mugabe "wins power, stays in power, and keeps power", will heavily influence the already flawed electoral process to secure a predetermined result, well-substantiated information obtained this week shows.

Mugabe's rivals Morgan Tsvangirai and Simba Makoni yesterday charged that Mugabe was going to "steal" the polls.

"There is a well-thought-out and premeditated plan to steal the election from us," Makoni said. "The credibility of the electoral process is in doubt."

Mugabe must win more than 50% of the valid votes cast to avoid a run-off. Independent surveys have tipped Tsvangirai to win the poll ahead of Mugabe and Makoni. The surveys have all pointed to the possibility of a second round of polling as Tsvangirai is tipped to get just short of 40% of the vote.

The working group, which sources say has "electoral rigging graduates", will go to any lengths to ensure Mugabe and Zanu PF win tomorrow. The presidential poll results, the sources said, would be manipulated at the National Command Centre (now renamed the National Collation Centre) by security officers.

"There is a team of security and electoral agents in place to ensure Mugabe wins," a well-connected source said. "All sorts of fraudulent measures will be used to achieve this, including reducing of polling stations and ballot papers in opposition strongholds, slowing down the voting process, turning away voters and hence disenfranchisement, having ghost voters and playing around with the numbers of ballots.

"They have also been fiddling with the structure of the already flawed voters' roll to ensure there are more rural than urban voters," the source said. "This team has virtually taken over the running of elections from the ZEC (Zimbabwe Electoral Commission) and in the process will subvert the people's will."

Evidence that the ZEC was not entirely in charge of the electoral process was recently displayed in public after election fliers under the ZEC banner were distributed by unknown people — suspected to be security agents — wearing the commission's jackets, claiming there would be cardboard ballot boxes and permission for police to help the infirm and illiterate at polling stations.

The ZEC was later forced to withdraw the fliers, saying it had no knowledge of who was distributing them. Last week it became clear that the state was implicated because Mugabe changed the law to allow police to be involved in the electoral process, something the January amendment to the Electoral Act had outlawed following inter-party talks.

The ZEC also recently hastily withdrew its voter education officers from the provinces after realising ballot papers were printed in colours different from those it was advertising. The presidential ballots were supposed to be white, House of Assembly blue, senate green and council yellow.

But when the ballot papers came, there were three white ones (presidential, House of Assembly and senate) and yellow for council elections, creating chaos.

Revelations of electoral chicanery underway make the defining elections appear decidedly rigged to retain Mugabe and Zanu PF in power despite deepening unpopularity due to the economic crisis.

However, government has denied allegations of planning to rig elections.

The Independent's sources said yesterday Mugabe's team was working hand-in-glove with a group of University of Zimbabwe political science lecturers, including Dr Joseph Kurebwa, who was last year seconded by the CIO to be editor of the now-closed Mirror Group of Newspapers.

Kurebwa could not be reached for comment last night.

Information to hand shows that Mugabe's security and electoral operatives — using the state bureaucracy and resources instead of party structures — have a "winning formula" for him to secure between 52% and 53% of the vote.

Mugabe's agents expect he will get at least three million votes out of the total valid ballots cast. There are 5,9 million registered voters, according to the ZEC.

Initially, Mugabe's agents had calculated that unless something was done, he would only get between 49% and 50%. They later suggested a lot of hard work was needed to produce a victory margin of at least 52%.

Mugabe's taskforce has given the main opposition MDC leader Tsvangirai about 27% of the vote. They expect Tsvangirai to get a tad above 1,5 million votes.

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