First elections in 10 days

There might still be some haggling in the courts, questions about dead voters on the roll, and reforms but the 2013 elections are now real. The first will be held in 10 days and involve those who will be on duty on voting day, mainly members of the security forces.

The Zimbabwe Electoral Commission has set aside 14 and 15 July as the voting days for these special voters and will put up 209 polling stations.

ZEC chief elections officer Lovemore Sekeramayi said all members of the uniformed forces, election officials who will be on duty on the actual polling day, and civil servants who will be deployed far from their wards fall under special voting.

Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai’s Movement for Democratic Change has complained about rigging citing the example of police, saying 50 000 were registered as voters when the force is not that big.

The party which has Theresa Makone as co-Minister of Home Affairs did not state the actual size of the police force.

The Constitutional Court is due to hear the case about postponing the general elections from 31 July tomorrow.

The Zimbabwe African National Union-Patriotic Front wants them held on 14 August. The MDC factions want them later than that because they want to ensure that reforms are implemented before the elections.

It is not clear whether, even if given a-three month extension, it would be possible to implement any reforms as Parliament was dissolved last Saturday and any reforms have to be by decree.

Cabinet, which is dominated by ZANU-PF after it outwitted the MDC factions at the formation of the inclusive government, is still operational.

ZANU-PF has silently argued all along that there will be no further reforms unless the reforms it called for under the Global Political Agreement are also implemented.

It wants the removal of sanctions and foreign governments to stop hosting radio stations like Voice of America’s Studio 7, SW Radio Africa and Voice of the People.

There was another blow on Monday when SENTEC cut off South African Broadcasting Corporation services to Zimbabwe giving the Zimbabwe Broadcasting Corporation free reign.

A lot of Zimbabweans, mostly in urban areas or centres with electricity, were receiving SABC programmes through free-to-air decoders.

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