The Zimbabwe 2013 Elections Thread

Garyvdh said:
Once a net food exporter known as Africa's breadbasket, Zimbabwe's reformed agricultural sector is yet to produce enough to feed the country.
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Yes! from breadbasket to basketcase thanks to nutcase Mugabe.
 
MDC Alleges 'disturbing' vote irregularities

Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai's party on Wednesday listed a battery of irregularities -- including two million of dead people on the voters' roll -- in Zimbabwe's fiercely contested general elections.

"The greatest worry we have is the number of people that are being turned away," Finance Minister Tendai Biti, a senior member of the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC), told reporters.

He deplored mistakes on the voters' roll, which still included the names of dead people, did not list others and assigned many to the wrong polling stations.

The Zimbabwe Electoral Commission (ZEC) had discussed the mistakes in a meeting, he said.

"They are admitting that there's still two million people who are dead on the voters' roll, but they said because they're dead, they can't vote."

"Thousands and thousands of people are being disenfranchised by virtue of not finding their names on the voters' roll," Biti added.

At one polling station in the capital Harare, only 260 people had voted by midday, and 130 had been turned away, he said.

The late release of the voters' register -- less than 24 hours before balloting began -- also confused the electorate, he said.

"If the voters' roll had been provided to people (earlier) ... people would have checked (their names) and avoided the current fiasco," Biti said.

In some instances polling stations had even been placed in wrong areas, he added.

He further alleged that a parliamentary candidate for President Robert Mugabe's ZANU-PF had distributed around 6,.000 fake voter registration slips.

The slips give the bearer the right to vote regardless of whether their name appears on the voters' roll.

In rural areas literate voters, including schoolteachers, were being told to claim illiteracy so they could be helped to mark their ballots.

"So all along you are literate but when you go into the polling station you are suddenly illiterate," said Biti outraged.

The MDC further alleged numbers had been inflated for security forces who voted early on July 14 and 15.

As finance minister, Biti said he knew their true strength since he paid their salaries.

"This election ... was already marred by illegality after illegality," he said.

But he was still upbeat on the MDC's chances.

"We are very sure that despite all these challenges, despite all these shenanigans, history will not be stolen, the people's victor will not be stolen and that this election today will deliver change and real transformation."


Source : Sapa-AFP /ma/hdw/ks
Date : 31 Jul 2013 18:00
 
"They are admitting that there's still two million people who are dead on the voters' roll, but they said because they're dead, they can't vote."

"Thousands and thousands of people are being disenfranchised by virtue of not finding their names on the voters' roll," Biti added.

At one polling station in the capital Harare, only 260 people had voted by midday, and 130 had been turned away, he said.

The late release of the voters' register -- less than 24 hours before balloting began -- also confused the electorate, he said.

"If the voters' roll had been provided to people (earlier) ... people would have checked (their names) and avoided the current fiasco," Biti said.

In some instances polling stations had even been placed in wrong areas, he added.

He further alleged that a parliamentary candidate for President Robert Mugabe's ZANU-PF had distributed around 6,.000 fake voter registration slips.

The slips give the bearer the right to vote regardless of whether their name appears on the voters' roll.

In rural areas literate voters, including schoolteachers, were being told to claim illiteracy so they could be helped to mark their ballots.

"So all along you are literate but when you go into the polling station you are suddenly illiterate," said Biti outraged.

The MDC further alleged numbers had been inflated for security forces who voted early on July 14 and 15.

As finance minister, Biti said he knew their true strength since he paid their salaries.

"This election ... was already marred by illegality after illegality," he said.
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The many tactics used by mad bob's thugs, are a serious concern, but the forcing of a thug upon voters at the station, who are going to mark the cross, instead of the "illiterate" voter, is just beyond madness.
 
Observers have however so far given Wednesday's elections a thumbs up. The Zimbabwe Electoral Commission (ZEC) undertook to release the results within five days.

Head of the African Union observer mission, former Nigerian president Olusegun Obasanjo, told the media on Wednesday night that he considered the elections provisionally “free and fair".

"From what I saw and the reports that I’ve received so far from our observers who went out in the field, the conduct of the elections everywhere they went to was peaceful, orderly and free and fair," Obasanjo said.

“My hope is that this is what we’ll get from all polling stations from across the country."

Obasanjo was soon echoed by the ZEC, which also said all went well.

ZEC chairperson Justice Rita Makarau told journalists that all provinces reported that “polling was peaceful and orderly across the board".

SADC’s executive secretary Tomas Salomao said he was "impressed" by Zimbabwe’s elections.
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http://mg.co.za/article/2013-08-01-00-au-zim-elections-provisionally-free-and-fair
 
Ockie said:
Not according to the AU. They saying it was a free and fair election. bleh.
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O please the AU are the biggest joke on the planet. Dissolve that corrupt idiotic organization and perhaps let the UN take over. Might see a very different africa.
 
Counting underway in knife edge election

Vote counting was under way Thursday after Zimbabwe's tightly fought election which regional observers said was "orderly and fair" despite charges of vote-rigging by allies of veteran President Robert Mugabe.

Turnout was reported to be high nationwide after queues of Zimbabweans lined up hours before polling opened Wednesday to cast their ballots in a vote that could see Mugabe extend his 33-year rule.

The 89-year-old, Africa's oldest leader, is seeking a seventh term in office but his longtime rival Morgan Tsvangirai hopes the election will usher in a new era for the troubled southern African nation.

The African Union, which has been accused of whitewashing problems in the run up to the presidential and parliamentary vote, said initial reports indicated it was "peaceful, orderly, free and fair".

In Washington, US State Department spokeswoman Marie Harf also said early signs indicated a "peaceful environment" -- but that it was too soon to say if the election had been fair.

"We've made clear to the government of Zimbabwe and the region that further reductions in our sanctions will only occur if these next elections are credible, transparent and reflect the will of the Zimbabwean people," she told reporters.

It was the first election since the violent polls of 2008 that led to an uneasy power-sharing government between Mugabe and Tsvangirai as his prime minister.

There were no reports of widespread violence this time round, despite the fierce rhetoric of the campaign, although police said officers in Harare fired warning shots in the air and arrested 10 soldiers who tried to jump the queue to vote.

Many of the 6.4 million eligible voters started queueing before sunrise in the winter cold, hours before polls opened. The lines continued well into the evening, with many marking their ballots by candle light.

Final results are expected within five days of election day and police warned Wednesday that anyone trying to release unofficial figures ahead of time risked being arrested.

"I am sure people will vote freely and fairly, there is no pressure being exerted on anyone," Mugabe had said after casting his ballot.

The firebrand came to prominence as a hero of Africa's liberation movement, guiding Zimbabwe to independence in 1980 from Britain and white minority rule.

But his military-backed rule has been marked by a series of violent crackdowns, economic crises and suspect elections that have brought international sanctions and made him a pariah in the West.

On Tuesday Mugabe vowed to step down if Tsvangirai was the victor. "If you lose you must surrender," he said.

As the economy recovers from a crisis that saw mass unemployment and galloping inflation, Mugabe loyalists insist their hero is "tried and tested" and dismiss concerns about his age.

Mugabe had focused his campaign on attacking homosexuals and on promises to widen the redistribution of wealth to poor black Zimbabweans.

Tsvangirai himself predicted that his Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) would win "quite resoundingly".

"This is a very historic moment for all of us," he said. It is the time to "complete the change".

Tsvangirai won the first round of voting in 2008, but was forced out of the race after 200 of his supporters were killed and thousands more injured in suspected state-backed attacks.

But the 61-year-old former union boss has repeatedly voiced concerns that the election was being rigged and the MDC on Wednesday listed a battery of alleged irregularities.

Finance Minister Tendai Biti, a senior MDC member, said the names of thousands of voters were missing from the electoral roll.

Speaking after a meeting with the electoral commission, Biti said: "They are admitting that there's still two million people who are dead on the voters' roll, but they said 'because they're dead, they can't vote'."

The MDC handed its evidence to observers from the Southern African Development Community (SADC) and since no Western groups were allowed to monitor the polls, its account will be closely watched.

Tsvangirai hopes his plans to lure back foreign investors, create a million jobs in five years and improve public services will deliver a long-awaited victory.

Turnout appeared to be particularly brisk in urban areas where Tsvangirai has enjoyed his strongest support.

But some analysts cautioned against interpreting the high urban turnout as a sign Tsvangirai would sweep the election -- in which the victor needs more than 50 percent to avoid a second round.

"This election is going to be decided in the rural areas," where two thirds of Zimbabweans live and where Mugabe enjoys strong support, said Michael Bratton, founder of polling organisation Afrobarometer.


Source : Sapa-AFP /pk/aa/jje
Date : 01 Aug 2013 09:14
 
Tweets:

Al Jazeera:
@AJELive Source in #Mugabe's party claims leader and ZANU-PF have won poll
blogs.aljazeera.com/liveblog/topic/zimbabwe-elections-20996
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Reuters Africa:
@ReutersAfrica Breaking News: Robert #Mugabe has beaten #Tsvangirai's MDC in #Zimbabwe election - Source
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Zimbabwe police warn against unofficial poll results

Police in Zimbabwe on Wednesday warned they would arrest persons or groups that release unofficial results of the country's fiercely fought elections.

Traditionally independent local vote-monitoring groups collate parallel tallies as results trickle in from polling stations after counting.

But this year, police warned "all people who may wish to announce the results of elections before ZEC (Zimbabwe Electoral Commission) does so, that they risk being arrested," police spokeswoman Charity Charamba told reporters.

The warning also applies to online publication, she added.

"It does include websites because it still has the same effect.

"The fact that it is on the website still (means) a crime has been committed and if those people are within this country then they will be arrested," she said.

Several online platforms are set to break unofficial results as they come in.

The threat did not seem to deter various organisations and people to post provisional tallies on microblogging site twitter.

Britain's The Guardian and South Africa's Mail & Guardian newspaper, whose publisher is a Zimbabwean national, have set up online voting trends maps for the presidential polls.

Zimbabwe-based pro-democracy group Sokwanele has created an interactive election results map, while the ZimDecides website catalogued problem incidents around the polls.

The police warning followed President Robert Mugabe's threat Sunday to arrest his foe Morgan Tsvangirai if he attempts to declare early victory.

Tsvangirai had earlier told supporters he would announce a tally based on his party's parallel collation if there were delays in the official results.


Source : Sapa-AFP /mm
Date : 01 Aug 2013 00:45
 
I wonder if they setup Voting Boxes for the millions of Zimbabweans living in SA. And wonder how many of those millions will put vote in for Rob (*sarcasm*)
 
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