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

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FOREWORD Currently negotiators from all three of Zimbabwe's main political parties are engaged in trying to devise a Road Map to free and fair elections under a new and democratic constitution. This is, for all Zimbabweans, the holy grail. Zimbabweans had hoped that they were entering such an era at independence in 1980 but history has shown us that the struggle for freedom is not won all at once but has to be the object of a longer and more continuous struggle. But we have always known that we would not achieve the democratic future we want until there could be truly free and fair elections in Zimbabwe. The first and foremost essential ingredient for that is a properly drawn up voters' roll – and this should be a document in the public domain, easily accessible not only to political parties but to members of the general public. Both our South African Development Community (SADC) neighbours and partners and Zimbabwe's Parliament have all agreed that a reliable and accurate new voters' roll must be drawn up. Yet in Zimbabwe even this is no simple matter, as this Report shows. Nor has it been at all easy for many years now for anyone to gain access to the voters' roll: all manner of obstacles have been placed in the way. Having experienced the problem first hand when I dealt with many election petitions after the 2000 parliamentary elections, I have personal knowledge of these difficulties. Happily, the author of this Report, Bill Johnson, has been able to gain access to the current voters' roll as it existed in October 2010 and here at last is a proper analysis of it. As will be seen, it leaves us with no doubt that only a really new voters' roll, drawn up from scratch by a truly independent and impartial organisation, can provide a basis for a democratic future. We also need to ensure that in Zimbabwe both the post of Registrar-General of Elections and positions on the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission are held by truly impartial and fair-minded people, with no political or partisan bias of any kind. Despite all our travails in Zimbabwe, we have many such people at home and many more in the diaspora. Although we long for a democratic and peaceful outcome which will enable the millions who have left to return home, while the current situation continues it is vital that Zimbabweans in the diaspora should also be enabled to vote, in just the same way that the South African courts have determined that the franchise should be extended to South Africans abroad. I commend this Report and all those whose efforts have made it possible. In some cases there are people who have devoted years of their lives in trying to make public the data which is in it. It is a signal service to the people of Zimbabwe that this work has been done. It is my fervent hope that this report will be taken seriously not only by the political parties and Parliament but also by the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission. Beatrice Mtetwa v
CONTENTS Executive Summary 1 Full Report 3 The Zimbabwean Voters' Roll as at October 2010 3 How has this happened? 8 The Zimbabwe Electoral Commission (ZEC) 10 The Background: Gaining Access to the Voters' Roll 12 Parliament's views 13 A History of Roll Reports and Audits 16 The Delimitation of Constituencies 18 The Diaspora 19 Recommendations 20 Conclusion: The Difficult Birth of Zimbabwean Democracy 20 Appendix 1: Appendix 2: Appendix 3: Appendix 4: The Database List of “new” voters over 100 years of age List of 100-year-olds registered with the same date of birth in Mt Darwin East Full list of under-age voters vii
Page 2 and 3: PREVENTING ELECTORAL FRAUD IN ZIMBA
Page 4 and 5: “The people who vote decide NOTHI
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 30 and 31: Similarly, at first extreme measure
Page 32 and 33: The database used in this study now
Page 34 and 35: "New" Voters 100 years of age and o
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APPENDIX 3 List 100-year-olds regis
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Mt Darwin East 100 year olds with s
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Age as at 01/10/2010 Full list of r
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Have you ever heard of a voters' ro
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Preventing Electoral Fraud report SAIRR May 11 ... - AfricanLiberty.org

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