Institute for War & Peace Reporting (London)
Joseph Sithole
31 March 2008
Harare — In what can best be described as a shock result, President Robert Mugabe and his ruling ZANU-PF party are about to announce victory for Mugabe in the parliamentary and presidential elections, according to unofficial results leaked from the ZANU-PF and Zimbabwe Electoral Commission, ZEC, command centres.
But sources within the ZEC centre - newly christened the National Collation Centre - say Mugabe clearly lost the election to his opposition rival Morgan Tsvangirai, polling only 20 per cent of the vote. He is also said to trail Simba Makoni who garnered 28 per cent.
Tsvangirai is said to be leading but just failed to get the requisite 50 per cent plus one vote. According to ZANU-PF sources at the collation centre, ZEC is about to announce that the ruling party won by 111 seats, with some rural constituencies recording huge victories for Mugabe.
The sources said in Mugabe’s traditional strongholds, such as Uzumba Maramba Pfungwe, he won with huge margins of more than 30,000 votes, with Movement for Democratic Change, MDC, president Tsvangirai getting as few as 2,000 votes.
But commentators say it would be something of a miracle if Mugabe and his party had secured the victory, given more than 85 per cent unemployment, serious food shortages and a collapsed health delivery system.
IWPR could not get the exact percentage by which Mugabe will be said to have won but the sources said there would not be a run-off, as ZANU-PF will claim Mugabe has clinched more than 50 per cent of the total number of voters cast.
Some of the ruling party’s heavyweights that have fallen include Minister of Women Affairs Oppah Muchunguri, Agriculture Minister Joseph Made, Justice, Legal and Parliamentary Affairs Minister Patrick Chinamasa, Minister of Energy and Power Development Mike Nyambuya, and Information Minister Sikhanyiso Ndlovu.
The supposed election results, if ZEC goes ahead to announce them, are likely to be condemned locally and internationally. The election will be viewed as stolen because of voter intimidation and allegations of vote rigging.
There are already reports coming from the United States saying sanctions, currently targeted at Mugabe and his close associates, would be intensified if the ballot were not free and fair. The same is likely to come from Britain, Canada, Australia, New Zealand and other western countries.
But what is more worrying now is how Zimbabweans are going to receive the result, especially after the MDC has been saying it “has won this election beyond any reasonable doubt”.
Zimbabweans cast their votes at the weekend amid indications the poll was already stolen, with reports of stuffed ballot boxes being discovered in Mashonaland Central and Masvingo provinces. The opposition parties and independent candidates had already alleged that Mugabe was going to rig this election to avoid a humiliating loss.
The MDC last week uncovered gross irregularities in the voters’ roll, showing thousands of voters supposedly living on what turned out to be open ground. According to the voters’ roll, 65 per cent of voters registered in Harare North live on a piece of land that used to belong to the Ernest Kadungure housing co-operative.
However, upon visiting the area, the MDC found that it was one of the areas where shacks were demolished during Operation Murambatsvina, when the government destroyed homes in areas that were perceived to be MDC strongholds.
The Pan-African Parliament, PAP, at the close of voting on March 29, raised concerns with ZEC chairman George Chiweshe.
In a letter to Chiweshe, PAP Election Observer Mission leader Marwick Khumalo said it saw no evidence that there were any residents in Ward 42, which is deserted land with a few wooden sheds, despite voters from that deserted ward being listed on the voters’ roll. The Crisis Coalition of Zimbabwe, CCZ, has said whatever the outcome of the results of the general elections, the process will not be a true and legitimate expression of the democratic will of the people of Zimbabwe.
CCZ spokesman McDonald Lewanika said civil society in Zimbabwe deplored the recent comments by service chiefs saying that they would not accept the election of any presidential candidate but Mugabe.
Army commander Constantine Chiwenga and head of the prison services retired Major-General Paradzai Zimondi announced they would not salute anyone but Mugabe, while police chief Augustine Chihuri said he would not accept an opposition victory.
Lewanika also condemned statements by Mugabe, who has been using threatening and intimidating language in speeches to the electorate.
In Bulawayo, Mugabe told a rally that voting for the MDC would be a waste of time and that he would not allow the opposition party to rule Zimbabwe. Tsvangirai said in an interview recently that if Mugabe won the election, “it’s dead end for the country”.
Once-prosperous Zimbabwe is suffering from the world's highest inflation rate of more than 100,000 per cent, chronic shortages of food and fuel, and an HIV/AIDS epidemic that has contributed to a steep decline in life expectancy.
Joseph Sithole is the pseudonym of an IWPR-trained journalist in Zimbabwe.
Read comments. Write your own.
Copyright © 2008 Institute for War & Peace Reporting. All rights reserved. Distributed by AllAfrica Global Media (allAfrica.com). To contact the copyright holder directly for corrections — or for permission to republish or make other authorized use of this material, click here.
AllAfrica aggregates and indexes content from over 125 African news organizations, plus more than 200 other sources, who are responsible for their own reporting and views. Articles and commentaries that identify allAfrica.com as the publisher are produced or commissioned by AllAfrica.
Zimbabwe is gone!!! The elections will be rigged yet again, but as there is no oil or commodity that America or Europe need therefore they will not do anything to help. they would rather keep their troups in places like Iraq because that is where the oil is.
I would like to point out that Zimbabwe was never prosperous, it was in fact Rhodesia that was prosperous, until Mugabe took over. I am deeply saddened about what is happening to my home country and wish someone would step in and help rather than "increasing sanctions", we all know at the end of the day it doesnt mean anything. What does zimbabwe sell to the world that they can refuse to buy, what does the world sell to Zimbabwe that it can afford? Lets be honest now the country needs a new leader who can start the very slow process of trying to change the economy but I know that will never happen in my life time.
If by some miracle a new president is elected, what will happen to all the current ministers who are living a life of luxury, can you see them all taking pay cuts, not having the life they once had? What happens when the police refuse to obey the new leader, What happens then when the new leader is assinated?
The revolutionaries will not allow neo colonialists to rule in Africa when we have the power tp stop it. Morgan and the rest of them bootlickers will set our people up for rape, child molestation and genocide again if we don't stand and fight. Angola and the others in the Southern African Development Community know this and thats why they haven't said a word! Go Mugabe!
please... go Mugabe??? The same Mugabe who has turned our country into slum?? Please lets get a grip... Its time for change.
Dear Zimbabweans, it is so unfortunate that Mugabe decided to stay so long on power without preparing or allowing young Zimbabweans to take part in liberating the country. However, I wish to advise you that, relying on America, Britain, Canada and other so called poweful countries will not help. These countries have no interrests in the so called democracy, what they see is if they can steal the resources of our continent. I believe Mugabe, despite having stayed on power for so long, is not the waste president we have in Africa. I take for example Paul Kagame of Rwanda, who is currently estimated to have killed more than five million of african population and pludged the country into genocide which for a number of times was best model on the continent for both peace and development. The same killer (Kagame)is now supported and displayed as best African leader by America, Britain, Canada, South Africa and other so called rich countries.All these countries are either selling guns or digging diamond in DRC. The waste african leader like Kagame,is now the best model simply because he opened the way to DRC for the rich countries to kill africans and steal african resources. The person who significantly contributed to the well being of continent like Mugabe, is diplayed as waste leader simply because he want Zimbabweans to take their own identity. I do not support Mugabe remaining on power but I dod not support those who think Mugabe is the waste president on the continent. For Zimbabweans, America, Britain and other socalled rich countries, if you think Mugabe is bad for you, those contries are very bad for each african citizen. I hope that as youth, we will find other ways of managing our continent.
There is no doubt Mugabe has lost popularity from many Zimbabweans. But it would be foolish to think that, this will automatically give the opposition the win they possibly deserve from the popularity they tend to draw from the town dwellers and the unemployed youth, who dont even vote.
Voting in Africa is diverse and sometimes confusing. The opposition should blame themselves if they lose by not fielding a candidate who most Zimbabwean would have accepted as their own. The MDC leader is more of a puppet, and Simba Makoni came a bit late and had no Vehicle to deliver his victory. Mugabe is more likely heading for Victory with a simple 50+1 votes. The Rural Vote is very powerful and most opposition in Africa tend to ignore that. Whatever the Outcome Zimbabwe has a lot of hills and oceans to climb and cross respectively
Geez Seti...........portraying RM as a good guy just because he's not as bad as Paul Kagama just doesn't quite cut it, now does it. What has the DRC have to do with Paul Kagama in any case?...
it is clear that mugabe has lost by a landslide but that they are trying to rig the election results yet again, he has guided his country so poorly recently that the people need a new president as well as new hope for their country. what is seriously wrong with mugabe if he only wants to stay in power for himself when he can see that he is ruinig zimbabwe. i just hope that morgan or simba win so that they can start to revie zimbabwe as a country