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Zimbabwe Watch - Press statements
12 October 2004
Zimbabwe 2005 Parliamentary Elections- International community has to act now
by Grace Kwinjeh, MDC representative in Brussels
"If you are an Al-Qaeda you can not be expected to be given access to the public media. You cannot expect the MDC to be given the right to say ‘Mugabe must go’ in the public media," said Patrick Chinamasa (Justice Minister) in Parliament after being quizzed by MDC legislators on access to public media by the opposition. The international community has to be clear of the basis upon which it is going to judge whether the people of Zimbabwe have exercised their democratic right to chose leaders of their choice in the coming Parliamentary Elections set for March 2005.
Since 1999 Zimbabweans have campaigned relentlessly for their right to vote. The ruling Zanu PF regime has however since then perfected the art of subverting the peoples will at elections to suit its own selfish agenda of remaining in power at all costs.
On August 17 in Mauritius, the pro-democracy movement was vindicated through the adoption by SADC leaders, (including Zimbabwe) of the SADC Principles and Guidelines Governing Democratic Elections. As the introduction states: “The development of the principles governing democratic elections aims at enhancing the transparency and credibility of elections and democratic governance as well as ensuring the acceptance of election results by all contesting parties.”
The above sums up what the struggle or the crisis in Zimbabwe has been about in the past four years. The spirit of Mauritius is what Zimbabweans have been fighting for. The question is however whether the Government of Zimbabwe will honour its commitment to other SADC States when it put its signature on these Principles. Its actions on the ground go in the opposite direction to what the region is hoping to achieve in the promotion of democratic elections.
The MDC has questioned the credibility of the whole electoral process since it contested in the 2000 Parliamentary Elections. It has challenged the result in court of 37 out of 120 of the constituencies it participated in the 2000 Parliamentary Elections. It is also challenging the outcome of the 2002 Presidential elections. The basis of its challenges is mostly to do with state sponsored political violence; outright rigging through the stuffing of ballot boxes or related matters to do with the disappearance of ballot boxes; no access to state media; no access to voters rolls; victimisation of its candidates and polling agents during voting days; the list goes on. Observer Missions from the Commonwealth, SADC Parliamentary Forum, Ghana, Kenya, the European Union, Japan, the USA and others condemned those elections for not being free and fair.
Unfortunately today we seem to be having another interesting yet traumatic repeat of the Parliamentary and Presidential elections. The trauma we suffered then we are going to suffer again, this time round as we prepare for the March 2005 Parliamentary elections.
The fear campaign has started. The commander of the Zimbabwe Defence Forces, General Constantine Chiwenga, has announced that the army is not going to accept any change in government that carries the label ‘made in London’. A repeat of back then in 2002 when the commander of the Defence Forces, Vitalis Zvinavashe announced that the army will not salute anyone who does not have liberation war credentials. A fear campaign was carried out on television, radio and at Zanu PF rallies, that if the MDC won in the Presidential elections then the country would go back to war. To make this campaign even more effective the population was treated to gory scenes of liberation struggle pictures of mass graves, skeletons and skulls of some of the dead fighters including other scenes of comrades singing revolution songs. That was then another era another time almost thirty years back, but all these scenes came back to life.
Previous elections have seen the rapid and systematic deployment of youth militia in strategic parts of the country leading to the establishment of what became known as 'no go areas' situated mostly in the rural areas of Mashonaland East, central and west. This time it gets better, even the police are going through re- education or re-orientation on how to deal with enemies of the state , they are being taught what the MDC stands for and why it has to be dealt with. The story of violence by Zanu PF gangs in the communities is a sad one. Murder, rape and torture all carried out with impunity. A selective application of the law exists. It is opposition supporters who in most instances are arrested for having been beaten up or even daring to go to the police to report cases of political violence. Perpetrators are known but none of them are prosecuted. Top Government officials are on record for using hate speech during election campaigns, again they do so with impunity. The little credibility that was left in the police force is going to be compromised.
To top it up, now that the rural population seems to be increasingly restive it will be dealt with through chiefs and headmen who have now been given extraordinary political powers. After having been awarded by the state luxury vehicles and cash they have also been given new terms of reference, like the police under POSA they will now have the power to authorise meetings in their constituencies. Yes if any political party wants to have a meeting they have to seek permission either from the police or their local chief or headman. For 'security' reasons these village officials will be protected round the clock by Zanu PF youth militias.
There is no end to the draconian legislation that is put in place just before an election is to be held. Hardly a few months before the 2002 Presidential elections two Acts were enacted, the Access to Information and Privacy Act (AIPPA) and the Public Order and Security Act (POSA). Under POSA all democratic political activity was criminalised. For instance out of more than 50 applications to the police for the MDC Presidential candidate to hold rallies only 11 were authorised in the last month in the run up to the Presidential elections. Many other meetings by both civic organisations and the opposition were banned, raided and stopped by riot police. Scores of MDC activists were arrested and charged under POSA, some have cases still pending in the courts. Members of Parliament have been arrested under this law for having unauthorised meetings in their homes. A report recently adopted by the Inter-Parliamentary Union (IPU) on the victimisation and harassment of opposition MP's chronicles some of these cases of state sponsored violence against MDC legislators. Justice Minister Patrick Chinamasa was at pains at the last IPU meeting in Geneva recently, trying to defend the actions of his Government but the facts spoke for themselves and report was adopted as it was.
The twin brother to POSA the AIPPA has and continues to subvert the constitutional rights of freedom of expression and access to information. The MDC cannot communicate its policies or agenda to the electorate. The independent press continues to be muzzled with the frequent arrests of journalists and closing down of the only credible independent daily newspaper The Daily News. I will not even speak of the ordeal that the Daily News board and its employees have been through.
This was all part of the grand strategy to rig the 2002 Presidential elections in favour of the unpopular ruling party led by Robert Mugabe.
If Zanu PF is so popular why is it so scared of a democratic election?
In the MDC we are saying enough is enough. We are not going to give credibility to a flawed election process, it is within this context that we have alerted the region and the broader international community of our suspension of participation in this election charade until our minimum demands are met.
We adopted as a party the RESTORE document which contains our minimum demands for elections. RESTORE sets out benchmarks that have to be met by the regime to restore the integrity of the whole election process before the MDC can participate. The proposed political and electoral reforms conform with the whole spirit of Mauritius.
We are simply refusing, to be killed, raped, tortured and arrested in the name of election campaigning.
Zanu PF it is very clear wants to put in place cosmetic changes to woo the MDC into the election as a way of gaining regional and international credibility. We are well aware of this strategy and will expose it as we move to election time. On our part we have started to publish on a monthly basis an assessment of the extent to which Zimbabwe is in compliance with the SADC Principles. So far hardly five months before the elections are held the ruling party is failing in the major areas of electoral reform as set out in the principles.
Apart from the existing pieces of draconian legislation, Zanu PF is proposing two other equally dangerous pieces of legislation, that will enhance the work of POSA and AIPPA in denying citizens their basic political freedoms. The Non Governmental Organisations Bill will ban NGOs involved in governance and democracy issues from operating in Zimbabwe as well as those civic organisations, that have been carrying out voter education. These Organisations will also be banned from receiving foreign funding.
Interestingly the bill which seeks to register all NGOs with powers to deny them a license is also likely to affect even those that have been dealing with humanitarian assistance. Zanu PF is notorious for using food aid as a political tool thus it is no coincidence when it claims at the moment that there is a bumper harvest of 2.4 million tonnes of maize, contrary to figures coming from the Grain Marketing Board and other independent statistics that actually say that the country is left with a little less than four months supply of grain stocks. After which there is going to be a major humanitarian crisis. How this crisis will be dealt with is simple as only those with Zanu PF cards will be able to buy maize or receive food hand outs. Remember how in the Kuwadzana by-election residents suddenly had to buy maize and meali meal from the Zanu PF officials houses?
Those NGOs that have been challenging Government in the area of food distribution are likely to either be silenced or will volunteer to ‘see no evil and hear no evil’ for fear of losing their licences if they do get registered. This scenario presents a dire situation for a country devastated by the HIV/AIDS pandemic which is threatening to wipe out a whole generation.
What Zimbabwe needs is a leadership that has compassion. A leadership that cares for its well being.
Another proposed piece of legislation is the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission bill which seeks to establish an ‘independent electoral body.’ President Robert Mugabe will appoint the chairperson of the commission and four others will be appointed by the Parliamentary Committee on Standing Rules and Orders which is chaired and dominated by Zanu PF. Meaning that like the Media and Information Commission established under AIPPA the Electoral Commission is just another political structure whose sole purpose is to pursue Zanu PF interests. If enacted this law will not change much in the work of the controversial Registrar General, Tobaiwa Mudede who has been at the centre of election rigging on behalf of the ruling party. Mudede will still run elections, register voters and be in charge of voters rolls. To date the MDC has been denied access to an electronic version of the voters roll. Civic organisations will also be banned from carrying out voter education, an essential component of a democratic election.
All these developments looked at in the context of disputed elections in the past, Zimbabwe is sitting on another time bomb. I will re assert that now is the time for the broader international community to be clear on the basis upon which it is going to judge the outcome of the 2005 Parliamentary elections.
Elections are not an event but a process. Hardly five months before the elections are held the above is the situation we in the MDC are faced with. Our driving principle as a party is change through the ballot box. We do not believe in violence and will never consider it as an option or alternative strategy to what we have been saying and campaigning for. We will continue through peaceful means every day to challenge and fight for the right to chose a leadership of our choice democratically. Even our suspension of participation in the coming elections is just part of our own broader strategy to ensure that our democratic rights as an opposition are recognised.
Some say Mugabe will go into the elections on his own, get a majority, be able to amend the constitution and live happily ever after. It is not going to be as easy as that. Firstly when we formed the MDC we knew we were signing a contract with death. In the world over democracy has never come on a silver platter. Tyrants have never willingly handed over power to the people, it has been fought for. Neither have the people surrendered that easily in their quest for freedom. Some have been killed others imprisoned. Those in the fore front of the struggles did not give up they fought to the bitter end and so will we in the MDC.
Even with the odds against us we know we won with an overwhelming majority in both the Parliamentary and Presidential elections. This time we are not going to be robbed of a victory again. No. We are going to get it proper and straight under a level playing field.
But the question to pose to the region and the broader international community based on the assumption that Mugabe will go into these elections on his own is will they recognise his victory?
Is the international community going to reward Mugabe by giving him legitimacy for what he has done to the country and its people? Is a tyrant who presides over one of the most rotten and evil regimes going to be accepted in the SADC? Are SADC Heads of State going to sit on the same table with Mugabe? His hands dripping with the blood of his own citizens? What is the reaction of the African Union, United Nations, the European Union, United States and others going to be?
It is one thing to point fingers at the British and Americans at international fora and yet his own people are suffering because of his misrule. It is not the Americans or British who put in place POSA, it is not them who pay gangs that rampage through villages and communities, that rape and maim innocent citizens. It is the Robert Mugabe regime.
These international bodies have to make clear to Mugabe that the world is refusing to continue being dragged back to dark ages where leaders trampled on the rights of citizens with impunity, and still want to recognised as being part of the world community.
Mugabe has to be made accountable for his actions. The world has to make clear to him now, that it is not going to recognise a flawed election process and the result that comes out of it. The world has to stand with the people of Zimbabwe. There is nothing African about this state of affairs. As a black African woman I regret that my country was ever colonised by Britain, but I am in tears that this is now an excuse to deny me the very rights that my uncles and aunts died for in the struggle for the liberation of my country. That we were colonised and had to endure the brutality of the Smith regime does not justify a repeat of the same kind of brutality under another 'black' Smith who has mastered the art of repression and is now even more brutal than his predecessor. It is ironic yet very sad.
The democratic world must refuse to be blackmailed into silence. The world community must not fail the people of Zimbabwe. Mugabe is a residue of a past we in Africa are trying to shake off our backs. A sad past indeed. Collectively as Africans and citizens of the world we have to act and save lives, save a country that is on the brink of total collapse.
We Zimbabweans take comfort in the fact that Mugabe is a mere mortal. Like other tyrants before him his days are numbered. One day we will have victory he and his Zanu PF party will be a thing of the past. Zimbabwe will never be the same again. But let future generations not condemn us for having sat and done nothing. It is for this that in the coming months we will not sleep neither we will we tire. We are going to fight until democracy is realised in our once beautiful country. We are the future. Freedom is ours.
A luta Continua.
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