Voters’ roll so shambolic that Makone was not even on it

Zimbabwe’s voters’ roll is so shambolic that Theresa Makone, the co-Minister of Home Affairs, which is responsible for the roll and updating it, was not even on the roll though she voted in 2008.

It was only after she complained to cabinet that her name was put back but this time with her name spelt wrongly.

This was part of the testimony given to the United States Senate Foreign Relations Committee, subcommittee on African Affairs, on Tuesday by Dewa Mavhinga, a senior researcher with the Africa Division of the New York-based Human Rights Watch.

The subcommittee held a special session on Zimbabwe entitled: Examining prospects for democratic reform and economic recovery in Zimbabwe.

Five “experts”, including Mavhinga gave testimony.

Mavhinga said as things stood, the chances of having free, fair and credible elections in Zimbabwe were slim.

There were fears that the elections might just be another cycle of political violence because little had changed on the ground to build people’s confidence that they could vote freely.

The voter registration and voters roll updating process was marred with errors- “to what extent deliberate is unclear”.

Mavhinga recommended that the United States Congress must ensure that any shift in US policy toward Zimbabwe, including a review of sanctions, is based on an assessment of whether the country has managed to have peaceful, transparent, free and fair elections and whether the government-elect can assume power.

President Barack Obama’s administration should work closely with the Southern African Development Community to press Zimbabwe’s political leaders to urgently take steps to:

• Ensure the political neutrality of the security forces, namely by investigating and prosecuting alleged abuses by security force personnel, publicly directing the leadership of the security forces to carry out their responsibilities in a professional and impartial manner, and appropriately punishing or prosecuting those who fail to do so;
• Press for urgent reforms to the highly partisan state-controlled print and electronic media to ensure that they become genuinely public, to guarantee equal and fair coverage to all political parties;
• Provide for the immediate deployment, and in sufficient numbers, of both domestic and SADC-led international election observers to Zimbabwe and maintain such monitors for a sufficient period after elections to deter violence and intimidation and to promote credible, free and fair elections that comply with the SADC Principles and Guidelines Governing Democratic Elections;
• Ensure implementation of all electoral reforms envisaged in the new constitution including the updating and cleaning up the country’s outdated voters’ roll, which has a significant number of “ghost” voters; and
• Ensure that the Zimbabwe government repeals or amends all repressive legislation such as the repressive sections of the Criminal Law (Codification and Reform) Act, the Public Order and Security Act, the Access to Information and Protection of Privacy Act and section 121 of the Criminal Procedure and Evidence Act.

The United States should also provide financial and technical support for a government that comes to power through credible, free and fair elections in a manner that would strengthen democratic state institutions and promote the rule of law, democracy, good governance, and human rights.

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