zimfinalpush
The rigging of the Zimbabwean Elections (2000 to 2007)
Preamble:
I think the fact that the Zim Elections were being systematically rigged from the year 2000 to date is one that has either to be accepted or contested.
It can never the duty of a single individual to relate how the Elections were (and are) rigged in Zimbabwe .
Then there are also the following questions:
What difference does it make if we get thousands of witnesses giving their testimonies?
Will Mr Robert Mugabe then resign?
Will it change the manner in which Mr Thabo Mbeki handles the Zim crisis?
Why are Elections Rigged?
- Elections are rigged because it is believed that if they are done in a completely "free and fair" manner, a certain "undesirable' resilt will arise.
- They are also rigged because the "undesirable" contestants command a clearly greater support than the Establishment are "comfortable" with.
- Elections are therefore rigged because the Establishment is under certain pressures. They have to hold Elections to gain credibility but on the other hand they would be "out of power" if they did not engage in various nefarious activities to suppress the true will of the people!
THE PSYCHOLOGICAL FORMS OF RIGGING!
Please note that I have to promise that everything I will write in this submission is "the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth!"
I have to promise this because many of you may be shocked at the things that I will mention!
FIRSTLY:
The MDC is described as a group of "sell-outs"who have been bought by the former Colonial Powers.
Any students of Revolutionary Movements know that to be labelled a "sell-out" is the same as being sentenced to death. Any member of the Public who abuses, harms or even murders an identified "sell-out" is not only protected but also commended by the Establishment!
In my submission "THE THOUGHTS AND MEMORIES OF A FORMER ZANU-PF CADRE", I tried to highlight that Robert Matibili (Mugabe) has always "destroyed" (or to use his own words-"CRUSHED") all his "opponents" presenting them to a simplistic, gullible Electorate as "sell-outs" and "saboteurs."
We can go back to Bishop Abel Muzorewa, Dr Joshua Nkomo, the Rev Ndabaningi Sithole and Mr Edgar Tekere.
Mr Morgan Tsvangirai should have expected the same treatment when he formed "THE MOVEMENT FOR DEMOCRATIC CHANGE."
Unfortunately for the MDC, although they had millions of workers and peasants on their side, the other forces that combined efforts with them included employers and commercial farmers.
There was absolutely nothing wrong with the MDC getting support from the widest spectrum possible! Only ZANU-PF got a field day "soiling" them with their favourite "SELL-OUT" LABEL.
One can read the true version of events that led to the formation of the MDC from a submission entitled "THE SAD STORY OF THE MDC (1999 to 2006)" which one can get the link thereof at www.finalpushzim.blogspot.com .
The NCA ( The National Constitutional Assembly) successfully mobilized the Nation to reject the ZANU-PF Constitution early 2000. ZANU-PF then claimed that the Nation had been misled into rejecting that Draft Constitution because the "whites" had seen a clause on the Land Issue!
This was too simplistic for any serious intellectual to believe!
No black person (not even one) would refuse that the land issue had to addressed sooner or later!
The main "bone of contention" was the post of Executive President with its immense powers which Robert Mugabe had been seen periodically abusing and there were other clauses which needed repealing or modifying.
When ZANU-PF tasted "NATIONAL REJECTION" for the first time since their coming into power in 1980, then the very worst was waiting for the "Opposition Forces!"
ZANU-PF held an Emergency Congress at the resort town of Victoria Falls .
This Congress was the "water-shed" where ZANU-PF had to "pull up their socks" because they had seen how far "the enemy" had gone into the "house" while everyone was "asleep!"
All the evil strategies of "crushing" the MDC were discussed there!
The very fact that the MDC was labelled as "Blair's Formation" ("svikiro raBlair") justified any evil method that was used to "crush" them.
The psychological aspect of the rigging stems from the fact that the survivors of the Liberation War of the 70s and the "Fifth Brigade Massacres" of the 80s knew what it meant to provoke Mugabe and ZANU-PF to anger.
That in itself is enough to woo a sizable number of votes (esp in the rural areas) to desist from even thinking of voting for any other Political Party except ZANU-PF.
SECONDLY:
ZANU-PF then started to draft lists of farms for "compulsory acquisition". Lists of names of "beneficiaries" flooded the State-owned "The Herald" and "The Sunday Mail."
The MDC was therefore presented as the misguided Movement which was committed to derail this noble revolutionary thrust.
The MDC did not make the situation any better by their issuing conflicting "Policy Statements" as far as this "disastrous so-called 'fast-track' Land Acquisition Exercise" was concerned!
BUT I DO NOT BLAME THEM AT ALL!
ZANU-PF was too desperate and they were doing their things too quickly and too violently and there was no room for a "cool-headed" look at the results of these "revolutionary" activities.
Morgan Tsvangirai's warnings that these haphazard methods of "rectifying the Colonial Imbalances" would have disastrous consequences were deliberately distorted to the perplexed, confused Nation as words from "Blair's Mouthpiece."
Prof Jonathan Moyo sarcastically called it "HIS MASTER'S VOICE."
Tsvangirai's statement that "vanhu vari kungomera sehohwa pese-pese" ("settlers are just 'mushrooming' all over the Commercial Farms") was presented to the Electorate as words from an "insensitive, misguided sell-out."
Now….as they say… "The chickens have come home to roost" and Tsvangirai's "prophecies" have all come true!
THIRDLY:
The presentation of quotes without presenting the whole context is a very favourite ZANU-PF trick!
Relying on the fact that the majority of Zimbabweans do not have access to OTHER Media outlets, ZANU-PF "doctors" their presentations and then "distort" the so-called "quotes" so that their own intended meaning is the resultant "menu!"
For instance, when the MDC Leader in 1999 said, "WHAT WE WANT TO TELL MUGABE TODAY: GO PEACEFULLY OR WE WILL REMOVE YOU VIOLENTLY!"……what's terribly missing is the context!
What was the content of the whole speech?
Why had Mugabe to be removed?
Even now millions do not have a copy of the whole speech. I,personally, would be grateful to have the whole speech so I can post it to my website!
So before we look at the PHYSICAL forms of rigging, we must appreciate the PSYCHOLOGICAL side!
The (mainly, urban) supporters of the MDC were therefore presented as "vanhu vasina kuiona hondo" ("people who did not see the Liberation War") who therefore had the luxury of being "sell-outs" without awareness of the consequences of taking this posture.
Above all, they were "spoilt" by the white man and did not see themselves as anything beyond being the white man's servants.
The primary slogan was, "UTHAND 'UKHULINYELWA!" ("YOU WANT OTHERS TO PLOUGH AND PRODUCE FOOD FOR YOU!")
These simplistic slogans are what confused even CDE Thabo Mbeki, and apparently that's where he is still "stuck" up to now!
THE PHYSICAL FORMS OF RIGGING!
These are too numerous!
No single individual can relate all the methods which ZANU-PF used to "physically" reduce the numbers of MDC voters and simultaneously increase the ZANU-PF voters.
NO single book can relate them all!
All I can promise you is that I will try to relate those that vividly stayed in my mind.
- The Polling Stations in the urban areas were drastically reduced. The State said the reason was because the rural folk needed far more Polling Stations to reduce their traveling from their homes to the said Polling Stations. But those in the rural areas can testify that they ended up being too many and the ratio of Polling Stations to the expected voters became very absurd. Some correctly claim that the Polling Officers got a lot of free time to fill in a lot of Ballot Papers in favour of ZANU-PF in the exaggerated free time. The urban voters had to rush to the High Court to seek an additional day (on that famous or infamous 2002 Presidential Poll) but the said voters ended up being literally tear-gassed to leave the Polling Stations just before 19.00 hrs instead of extending the time to accommodate the very last voter.
- The estimates of numbers of voters for the urban Constituencies were systematically reduced and the estimates for the rural voters increased so that the number of Constituencies would be tilted in favour of the rural areas.
- A serious "commotion" was created where all so-called "dual citizens" were supposed to renounce their foreign citizenships and tens of thousands even now cannot vote because the processes of "renunciation" are too laborious and expensive. Some were made to trace their fathers' lineages which they had normally never ever had an intention of concerning themselves with! Now….LO AND BEHOLD…. We hear that Robert Mugabe himself is from a Malawian father!
- Tenants and the unemployed in the urban areas could not vote unless and until they produced so-called "Lodgers' Certificates" from certain ZANU-PF-aligned Officers where many got so much harassment they decided to forgo their legitimate right to vote! These therefore lost the opportunity to elect Councillors, and Members of Parliament of their choice. Imagine that even in the Presidential Elections where the whole country should be just ONE CONSTITUENCY, hundreds of thousands still could not vote!
- In the rural areas no one could vote if they were not registered with their "Sub-Chief" who required a current and "paid-up" ZANU-PF Card before he registered them in "his" area! The Sub-chief would then rigorously "orientate" these prospective voters on the need to vote "correctly!" Since he was going to enter the Polling Station with "his" people immediately behind him, he did not want "any trouble" with ZANU-PF after the Polls!
- A very "silly" trick worked in the year 2000. Cell-phones were very scarce then and in many Polling Stations these gadgets were left in the Polling Booths and the simple rural folk were told that they were very sharp Cameras which were taking pictures so each voter's allegiance could be identified! This was done in numerous rural Constituencies, believe it or not!
- In certain rural Constituencies villagers were given Ballot Papers which had already been filled in by the ZANU-PF Youths and they were told to take these with them on the following day and then bring back to the Meeting the blank ones after the Polling! Believe it or not!
- A typical scene was witnessed by me with my own eyes at Chinhoyi in 2003. There was a registration of Candidates for the Election of Executive Mayor and the ZANU-PF MP, Mr Phillip Chiyangwa had a gang of about 15 ("THE TOP SIX") who were allowing or disallowing persons from entering the Cooksey HALL to get to the Registrar. In the evening, the State Radio and Television announced that the ZANU-PF Candidate had "thereby been elected 'unopposed'". Such scenes were seen at so-called ZANU-PF "No-Go" Areas like Bindura, Shamva etc.
- I saw with my own two eyes at Kadoma, suspected (or, more correctly, known) MDC members being prevented from leaving their homes on the two Voting Days. Since it was a Bye-Election, ZANU-PF Youths had been "bussed" from all over the country and the visiting youths were being assisted by the local ones to identify the homes of MDC members. Anyone who could be of voting age was prevented from leaving these homes and the Youths "volunteered" to go to the shops to buy anything that was required by these identified people. They would be "free" to leave their homes after 19.00hrs on the Sunday! Believe it or not!
- ZANU-PF Youths in certain areas (even in Urban Areas) confiscated without reason the Metal IDs (Identification Documents) of known MDC members just a day or two before the Voting Days. This was being reported in many areas but as usual the Police always professed "ignorance" of these "illegal" activities.
- In the Urban areas, as in the rural areas, ZANU-PF District Chairmen had to go into the Polling Stations "with" their Executive members. Similarly, the Branch Chairpersons and down to the Cell Chairpersons. This had the intimidating effect that any-one who did not "belong" to "THE PARTY" ("ASIRI MWANA WOMUSANGANO" ) could then be easily identified. I ask you to believe or not…YES….but the more serious question is how the MDC managed to get the voted that it did "IN SPITE" of all these "MACHINATIONS!"
- A few days before the Polling Days, the CIO would do the strangest thing that would send a "chill down the spine" of any person! In Chinhoyi, the CIO burnt down the ZANU-PF Provincial Offices and then got the opportunity to "deal" with the "notorious" Opposition members. ("Notorious" here meaning "prominent.") One can not describe what effect this has on thousands who either "change their minds" and vote for ZANU-PF or decide to abstain completely from voting!
- In many rural areas, MDC Polling Agents were suddenly beaten up for no apparent reason causing them to flee and in many cases the counting of the votes was done in the absence of anybody who could represent the MDC Candidate!
- Some simple, gullible voters were told at ZANU-PF rallies and meetings that one's finger-prints could be used to identify those that voted for "Blair's People" ("The MDC.") Believe it or not….many up to now believe this to be "Gospel Truth!'
- In Chinhoyi a full Ballot Box went missing supposedly in "transit from" a " Ward" less than 5 kilometres away and then those that were there swore that the supposed "found" box was not the one that had been "missing." Believe it or not!
- A very interesting case in point was the very 2005 Parliamentary Elections. Certain figures were announced as the "final figures" for each Constituency (without the relevant break-downs ie MDC…"X" votes….ZANU-PF….."Y" Votes etc.) There was a very long delay….could be two full days….before the "FINAL RESULTS" were announced! There were serious "discrepancies' between the "Final Figures" which had been announced during the 24-hour "LIVE" announcements and these ALSO CALLED "FINAL FIGURES!" While everyone was trying to figure out the "mystery", a more serious occurrence struck! Peoples' homes were being destroyed and this was apparently more serious and diverted the attention of the whole world to the "MAN-MADE 'TSUNAMI'.("OPERATION MURAMBATSVINA HAD STRUCK!) Who remembers about those "discrepancies?
- Last but by no means, least……the very people that "fled" ZANU-PF persecution are not allowed to vote! So they cannot have their viewers heard! Which other country in the world refuses its citizens in other countries their LEGITIMATE RIGHT TO VOTE? Then the so-called Governor of the so-called Central Bank had the guts to "visit" these "dis-owned" citizens asking them to support the ILLEGITIMATE ZANU-PF REGIME BACK HOME!
So I hope CDE Thabo Mbeki has learnt one or two things about how we rigged (or still rig) Elections in Zimbabwe
Respectfully Submitted,
Rev Mufaro Stig Hove.
THE RADICAL SOLDIER.
Cell: 0791463039 RSA.
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