Wednesday 11 July 2018

ZEC's one-voter one-polling station serious undermine "Your vote is your secret!" Nomusa Garikai


Zanu PF increased the number of polling stations in 2013 from 2 000 to 9 000 just a few days before voting day. The only logical explanation was the regime was using the additional polling station to facilitate its vote rigging – events proved that was indeed the sinister reason.

The regime has come up with a new addition to the voting this year; each polling station will only have the names of the voters allowed to vote at that station in the new one-voter one-polling station system. This presents the serious problem of how secret is one’s vote.

In the past there was a common constituency voters’ roll and the individual could cast their vote in any one of the ten or so polling stations dotted around in the constituency. When voting is done, all the ballot boxes were brought to one or two centres. Each box was then opened to confirm the ballots in the box agree with the ballot issued. If this was agreed the ballots were then added to a common box.

The ballots were only counted after all the polling station boxes had been emptied into common box. At this stage it was impossible to know with any certainty who voted and much less how an individual had voted.

With this new voter-station specific system the voter has no choice of which polling station to use. Worse still, because each polling station conducts its own vote count; one can easily figure out who voted and whom they for, particularly is the number of cast ballots is low.

According to a NewsDay report the average number of voters per polling station is slightly over 500 and 241 stations have 100 or less registered voters with station with less than 10. The concept of “your vote is your secret” is now farcical.

In the rural areas where fear of political reprisals for all those suspecting of supporting the opposition is rife the one-vote one-polling station will only reaffirm the notion the authorities will know who one voted for.

ZEC has increased the number of polling station this year to over 11 000 with an addition 1 000 more still to be announced!

There is no doubt hundreds of thousands of people will be denied the vote this year because they will have turned up at polling station only to be told they are not registered there.

The voters did not ask for more polling station. Zanu PF wanted them for its own sinister purposes and so imposed them. Caesar’s will!

The people did not want this one-voter one-polling station which has eroded the secrecy of the ballot. Zanu PF wanted them, once again for the regime’s selfish and sinister purposes and so it imposed them. Another one of Caesar’s decree!

My fellow Zimbabweans, it is as plain as day light that Zanu PF is rigging this year’s elections just as the party has done countless times in the past. We can continue to bury our heads in the sand and pretend this is not happening and pay dearly for it.

Zimbabwe is in this political and economic mess because for the last 38 years we have been stuck with an incompetent, corrupt and murderous regime that rigged elections to stay in power against our collective democratic will. Unless we do something to end this scourge of unelected and unaccountable rulers this nation will only sink even deeper into this hell-on-earth Zanu PF has landed us in.

Are we to be ruled by rule of law or the capricious whims of a dictator? This is the question this nation must deal with urgently and decisively.

Zimbabwe is not the first nation to have to grapple with such vexing governance issues; other nations have done the same and we must learn from their experience. We do not need to reinvent the wheel.

The preamble of the first constitution of Denmark (Jyske lov), written in 1241, states: "The law must be honest, just, reasonable, and according to the ways of the people. It must meet their needs, and speak plainly so that all men may know and understand what the law is. It is not to be made in any man's favor, but for the needs of all them who live in the land.

“If there was no law in the land, then he had most who could get the most. Therefore, the law is made for everyone’s benefit, so that the just and peaceful and innocent can enjoy their peace, and the unjust and evil can live in fear of that which is written in the law, and therefore will not dare to act out the evil deeds they have in mind.”

There is nothing honest or just such vote rigging shenanigans as increasing the number of polling station 350% or this one-voter one-polling station system. Instead of Zanu PF coming up with changes to facilitate the people’s exercise of the freedoms and basic rights these changes are undermining or denying us our rights.

After 38 years of rigged elections we, the people, should have the courage and resolve to say enough is enough of all laws and practices designed to benefit the wicked at the expense of the just and are promoting anarchy, death and destruction!

These elections are a mockery of what free, fair and credible elections should be and they must be declared null and void.

8 comments:

  1. The African Union (AU) said on Tuesday that it would closely monitor Zimbabwe's presidential, parliamentary and local elections scheduled for July 30.

    The pan-African bloc said in a statement that it has already deployed an election observation mission to the southern African nation, upon invitation by the government and the electoral commission of Zimbabwe.

    The conduct of credible, democratic and peaceful elections in member states is deemed critical to the realization of the AU's aspirations and its overall goal of ensuring an integrated, peaceful and prosperous continent, the statement said.

    The AU would do Zimbabwe a great favour by reading through the report of the last AU election observer team. One of the concerns raised in the 2013 elections was Zimbabwe's failure to produce a clean and verified voters' roll on time as demanded by law. Why did the AU fail to condemn the elections that year given the seriousness of this failure?

    The AU will be interested to know that this has happened again this time!

    It is therefore very pleasing to hear that the AU is taking the issue of free and fair elections seriously, but the AU's own past record is telling a different story.

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  2. Mugwisi fooled no one with half a brain! How can the same ZDF that has played an active roll in the vote rigging of elections all these years and stage the military coup last November suddenly become the most law abiding institution in the land? What has changed?

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  3. In the 2013 elections nearly 900 000 voters, according to some election observers' report (ZEC said 300 000) were denied the vote because their details were not in the constituency voters' roll. This year one expects a hell lot more to be denied the vote because their details are not in the polling station voters' roll they expected it to be.

    You would think that for each constituency the polling station would at least have the complete voters' roll for that constituency so the can redirect the voters. That is not so.

    Of course, Zanu PF candidate will have the information of who is registered in which polling station and will advise their supporters accordingly.

    So this one-voter one-polling station system is not just undermining the principle of "Your vote is your secret!" it is going to deny 25% or so of the registered voters the vote.

    The harder the people try to make sure they exercise their right to vote the higher Zanu PF will raise the bar to deny them the vote. The real tragedy here is we are dealing with some voters who think they can win rigged elections, they just need to try even harder. It is a rat race with no starting point, no finishing point, no rules, etc. Zanu PF are not only contestants in the race they are the ones setting the rules and they are ones officiating and their decision is final! It really is impossible to see how they can ever lose an election which they are free to rig!

    Now that Zanu PF has the few gravy train seats to dangle before MDC and the whole opposition entourage it is hard to get the opposition to boycott the elections. The opposition are happy with the scraps and Zanu PF is happy their grip on power is secure. MDC supporters are too stupid to see that MDC leaders have sold-out and so they are living on dreams of winning rigged elections. We are well and truly stuck!

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  4. @ Naome

    There are MDC supporters who have failed to see that MDC leaders sold-out and there is nothing for the ordinary Zimbabwean in contesting flawed elections and "digging their own grave," as you say. They are going to participate in these flawed elections, the harder they try to win the rigged elections the higher Zanu PF will raise the bar. It is these brain dead MDC supporters who are digging their graves but one for each of us too!

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  5. So following the coup in November many of the top brass in the ZDF were promoted. This is now followed by everyone in the Army getting a 22.5% across the board wage increase. The Zimbabwe economic is in IC because the country' s bloated public sector has crowded out the wealth generating private sector. The country desperately needs to cut its public sector spending and instead of doing this the junta is doing the exact opposite.

    Some people have said ED was pragmatic when it came to the economy. He is clearly too busy consolidating his political base by following the same patronage system Mugabe has pursued these last 38 years.

    Like Mugabe, ED too thinks the nation can spend its way to prosperity! Of course, this is not going to help get Zimbabwe out of the economic mess but drag us even deeper into it. The deeper we sink the harder and longer it will take to get out - something one cannot get an ignoramus like Mugabe or ED to understand!

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  6. The Zimbabwe Electoral Commission (ZEC) boss Justice Priscilla Chigumba has revealed that the elections body was not investigating allegations that police officers were forced to cast their votes in front of their commanders arguing that no one had formally lodged a complaint on the issue.
    Surely this is something ZEC would want to investigate even if no one has complained to make sure all the affected ballots are discarded and the individuals affected are given fresh ballot, those involved are punished, the procedures are reviewed and tightened, etc. if the incident happened. The failure by ZEC to investigate and put the nation at easy is yet another mark against ZEC.

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  7. @ Memory Mataranjyika

    “There are growing concerns that Zimbabwe could be headed for a disputed poll as differences between political parties about the electoral playing field widen,” you said.

    All the opposition candidates have gone into these elections knowing that not even one democratic reform was implemented since the rigged 2013 elections. They were warning 100 000 times and 100 000 times again of the folly of taking part in these elections with no free public media, no clean and verified voters’ roll, Zanu PF getting billions of dollars looted from national resources to bankroll its vote rigging schemes, etc., etc. They have ignored the warning and so they cannot complain that the elections were rigged when they knew this would happen.

    The MDC leaders had the golden opportunity to implement the democratic reforms and after five years of the GNU failed to get even one reform implemented! The opposition have lost political credibility especial with SADC and the international community. They can complain that Zanu PF rigged the elections but, let me tell you, no one will listen to them!

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  8. The Mugabe family offered the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) led by Nelson Chamisa 24 million US dollars and a dozen vehicles to oil its election campaign, a Zimbabwean newspaper has claimed.
    In return, the MDC would reserve 82 parliamentary seats and a vice president’s post for a party linked to the Mugabes, the report said.

    The funding disparity between Zanu PF with its billions from looted national resources and the opposition many of who struggled to raise the cash deposit for the nomination let alone the campaign is just too big. One of the democratic reforms is meant to stop Zanu PF looting and force all parties to submit an audited financial report of their campaign expenses and source. It is meaningless to talk of free and fair elections in the present set up.
    The increased involvement of the Mugabes and NPF is turning these elections into a referendum on last November’s coup. We can be certain President Mnangagwa and his junta are doubling their vote rigging efforts; losing the elections would have been bad enough but losing the coup referendum to Mugabe is simply unthinkable!

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