Preventing Electoral Fraud report SAIRR May 11 ... - AfricanLiberty.org

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Similarly, at first extreme measures were taken to kill press freedom – including the blowing up of the Daily News press – but even Mr Mugabe has had to learn to live with an influential independent Media. Equally, the President's ability to counter the effect of democratic elections by nominating 30 MPs of his own has at last been abolished. In the 2008 elections it was for the first time required that each polling station publicly post up the exact results of the count at that station, a procedure which made electoral fraud considerably more difficult. All these are real and important advances. Bit by bit, the Zanu-PF regime has been embarrassed by the revelation of irregularities and has been nudged towards reform. The same is true of the voters' roll. Persistent pressure has led to at least some change in the ZEC and, as this Report shows, in the parliamentary debate on the voters' roll even Zanu-PF MPs agreed with the need for a new, clean, and biometric roll. So, bit by bit – every yard is hard fought – the struggle for democracy in Zimbabwe has continued to gain ground. Today Mr Mugabe is under acute pressure from his SADC neighbours to give still more ground and the same pressure is felt from the United Nations, major donors and the Great Powers. Quite likely what we will see is an inch-byinch reform which one day gives way to an overwhelming glasnost and perestroika: that is how history works. In the meantime, nothing is more crucial than that the struggle for full democracy should continue. There are many brave people in Zimbabwe who have dedicated their lives to achieving that full democracy. The author of this Report is deeply conscious of their courage: without it, this Report could not have been written. South Africa was founded as a country in 1910 but it long remained the sort of country where most people cheered for foreign sporting teams against their own, so alienated did they feel. In that era there was the false start of the Bantustans when we were invited to cheer for the independence of bogus “black homelands”, artificial creations which could never bring freedom to the majority. Then, thanks in the end to the same people who had inflicted apartheid on the country, democracy was introduced and in 1994 we (I speak as a voter in that election) experienced our first fully democratic election, which amounted to nothing less than a re-founding of South Africa. Zimbabwe, our immediate neighbour to the north, is very much the same. It has known false dawns, in 1965 and again in 1980 – but real freedom and proper democracy still lie ahead. This Report is intended as a contribution towards that real dawn, still to come. 22
APPENDIX 1 The Database
Page 2 and 3: PREVENTING ELECTORAL FRAUD IN ZIMBA
Page 4 and 5: “The people who vote decide NOTHI
Page 6 and 7: FOREWORD Currently negotiators from
Page 8 and 9: Tables and Figures Found in the Tex
Page 10 and 11: give Zimbabwe a free and fair elect
Page 12 and 13: Table 1: The age distribution of ne
Page 14 and 15: Table 3: Distribution of new nonage
Page 16 and 17: Equally incredible is the fact that
Page 18 and 19: However, to this must be added the
Page 20 and 21: There also needs to be far greater
Page 22 and 23: een easily amenable to analysis, th
Page 24 and 25: It is interesting to note that the
Page 26 and 27: to maintain a democratic façade, t
Page 28 and 29: elections. In these exceptional cir
Page 32 and 33: The database used in this study now
Page 34 and 35: "New" Voters 100 years of age and o
Page 56 and 57: APPENDIX 3 List 100-year-olds regis
Page 58 and 59: Mt Darwin East 100 year olds with s
Page 60 and 61: Age as at 01/10/2010 Full list of r
Page 62: Have you ever heard of a voters' ro

Preventing Electoral Fraud report SAIRR May 11 ... - AfricanLiberty.org

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