News Alert

Elinor Sisulu article published in the Sunday Times 20/3/2005

All indications are that the SA missions will not make a judgment based on anything they may witness on the ground, writes Elinor Sisulu

"OUR demand is just and legitimate. We demand a free and fair election where international observers will oversee." Josiah Magama Tongogara (1978), Zimbabwe national liberation hero and Zimbabwe African National Liberation Army military chief, who died in a car accident on the eve of Zimbabwe's independence.

If awards were given out for successfully rigged elections, Zimbabwe would rank among the leading nations in the world. The Zimbabwean government has become a past master at cynically manipulating elections to ensure victory for the ruling party, Zanu-PF. Since the parliamentary elections in 2000, Zimbabweans have endured nine by-elections and the presidential elections in 2002. All these polls have been characterised by intimidation of voters through a ruthless propaganda campaign that legitimises violence against members of
the opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) on the grounds that they are nothing more than puppets of the West.

Zimbabweans preparing for parliamentary elections on March 31 2005 do so with a terrible sense of deja vu. All indications are that this election will be as flawed and contentious as the 2000 and 2002 elections. If anything, the electoral environment has, in many ways, deteriorated since 2002, with the enactment of legislation such as the Public Order and Security Act, the Access to Information and Protection of Privacy Act and the Broadcasting Services Act. These pieces of legislation combine to deny the Zimbabwean electorate the basic freedoms of assembly, speech and association. Furthermore, the independence of the judiciary has been severely compromised as a result of state harassment. The voter's roll is fundamentally
flawed, constituencies have been demarcated to favour the ruling party, there is absolutely no voter education and, while levels of violence may be lower than they were in the run-up to previous elections, members of the opposition party continue to suffer harassment and physical abuse.

One of the main components of the Mugabe regime's elaborate election manipulation process has been the massive disenfranchisement of citizens. This is achieved by various means, such as confiscation of identity documents and the stripping of citizenship from Zimbabweans of foreign descent on the grounds that these people would most likely be supporters of the opposition. Denial of citizenship, first aimed at the white Zimbabwean community, has been extended to Zimbabweans of Malawian, Zambian, Mozambican and Indian descent. But the most dramatic form of disenfranchisement has been through the exodus of citizens. In the past five years millions of Zimbabweans have been compelled by circumstances - political repression, fear of violence or the collapsing economy - to migrate to other countries. Thus the Mugabe regime's disastrous policies have effectively disenfranchised several million Zimbabwean citizens by forcing them to leave the country.

The right of citizens, including those temporarily living abroad, to vote in national elections in their home countries is one that is recognised in most democracies. However, Zimbabwean citizens living abroad are denied this right. The reason for Zanu-PF's decision to exclude non-resident citizens from voting is obvious. The majority of Zimbabweans in the diaspora are disenchanted with the Mugabe regime and might vote for the opposition. If Zanu-PF believed that it could draw substantial support from Zimbabweans living abroad it would not hesitate to make arrangements for them to vote. Their exclusion is a matter of sheer political expediency.

Sadly, and this has been the case since 2002, the governments of the region have provided the Mugabe regime with their unqualified support in the run-up to the March 2005 election. President Thabo Mbeki and various senior members of the South African government have recently proclaimed that there is no reason to believe that the Zimbabwean elections will not be free and fair. All indications are that the South African observer missions will once again go to Zimbabwe and make a judgment based on a deep sense of solidarity with the Zimbabwean government rather than on anything they may witness on the ground.

The outlook is indeed bleak.