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15 April 2008
At his most disingenuous
By Eddie Cross
Can you believe these guys! Mr. Mbeki flies into Harare where inflation is raging at 500 000
percent. The wife of the President has fled with enough foreign exchange to feed the whole country for
6 months, an election has been held under totally unacceptable conditions.
The results - legally due in 6 days, are 14 days over due. The incumbent has illegally appointed a government, holds onto power and deployed the army to maintain his grip on the populace.
He has ordered illegal and unconstitutional activities. The economy is at a standstill, a national strike is threatened, there is no food in the stores and what is available is at unaffordable prices. Yet Mr. Mbeki climbs down from his luxury executive jet in Harare, embraces Mugabe and declares, "There is no crisis".
How difficult is it to tabulate 9 400 V11 forms and get a result? Would that take any group of
children more than a day? Those forms are the only basis on which these elections can be determined.
They are all in Harare and the result of the count and recount is available - has been available
for two weeks. "The results are too sensitive to release," says the ZEC. Why, because, they show
that Mugabe has been soundly thrashed and his main opponent has got more than 50 per cent of the
vote.
Then onto Lusaka where 13 regional leaders have gathered for an emergency summit to discuss the
situation in Zimbabwe "where there is no crisis!".
They debate the situation for several hours - late into the night. Then issue a communiqué that
declares that ZEC must release the results expeditiously. The illegal regime in Harare promptly
announced they would defy the region, hold up the announcement until they had recounted 23
constituencies next Saturday.
In the meantime here in Harare MDC went to Court to demand that the illegal recounts ordered by the regime and due to take place yesterday, be suspended pending our application to the Courts to the effect that the act is illegal and unconstitutional. The Court agreed and stopped all the recounts. Even so they went ahead in Bikita and duly announce that the new count showed, surprise, surprise that a MDC victory had been overturned and that Zanu PF had won!
Remember we have been excluded from the counting of the V11 forms for the presidency; ZEC has barred all independent observers and even moved the whole operation to a secret "high security" venue. They have had the ballot boxes under their control for 14 days, rumors are flying that they have printed ballots with the same numbers on them as those used in the original election, they have also contacted a number of the returning officers who have been intimidated and even arrested. They are perfectly capable of falsifying the V11 forms and the ballots themselves.
Under these conditions a recount is a complete farce. One interesting feature of the statement by the regime in Harare yesterday was that it was only the presidential ballot that would be recounted in 23 constituencies. Originally they listed 25 constituencies - no explanation of the differential. Does this mean they are going to allow the parliamentary vote and the local government votes to stand as they are? They are committed to a re-run in 21 days after the final result is announced.
That will be on the 10th May - six weeks after the first election. Six weeks of turmoil and mayhem simply because an old man and his cohorts will not obey their own rules and constitution and leave office in an orderly and peaceful way. All the rules of the SADC for this sort of thing are being violated and blatantly so in front of the whole world. But then Kibaki stole the Presidential election in Kenya and has been allowed by the international community and Africa to get away with it.
Our own position at present is that we will not accept a re-run. But what is the alternative? To go onto the streets and fight for our rights? The illegal regime in Harare holds all the guns and levers of control. Does blood have to spill to bring the UN into the situation; do principle and the rule of law matter to nobody but us?
We always knew that the solution to this crisis was in our hands and that the international
community simply would not interfere or intervene unless we started killing each other. The regional
leaders who have the power to influence the regime in Harare and who established mechanisms for just
such an eventuality have once again failed us. South Africa under present leadership is inept and
compliant.
So what do we do? We may simply have to bite the bullet and accept a re-run.
What if they recount 23 constituencies and hey presto! Produce a victory for Mugabe! Then we have
real problems because then we have no alternative but to fight for our rights and a bloody and
extended conflict will ensue that will draw in the UN and the international community and finally
destroy what is left of this benighted country.
If they compromise and do force a re-run, then the very least that the region can do is deliver
reasonable conditions - stop the present wave of violence and intimidation that is regime managed
and funded, order independent observers into the country to monitor the election and ensure that ZEC
is allowed to do its job properly, professionally and without interference or coercion.
On our side, we would have to struggle on trying to survive the next few weeks and get our people ready. We would have to train and deploy up to 20 000 polling agents and make sure they were in position at every polling station without exception. That will take money, real money and at least 1000 volunteers with vehicles and communications equipment. But we can do that and then deliver a final blow to this regime from which they simply cannot recover and then, we can get on with the task ahead of us.
Perhaps we need to do this even though it seems unthinkable at this stage - and then get final
closure on this shameful episode. Its clear, Africa has a long way to go before it can say it
observes democratic practices and principles despite all the high sounding rhetoric.
Eddie Cross
Bulawayo, 13th April 2008
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