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

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Tables and Figures Found in the Text Table 1 Age distribution of new voters, October 2010 Table 2 Examples of under-age voters on the October 2010 roll Table 3 Distribution of new voters and nonagenarians, October 2010 Table 4 Table 5 Examples of voters known to be deceased on the roll Composition of the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission (ZEC) Figure 1 Map showing increase of new voters by constituency, October 2010 Figure 2 Distribution of new voters over the age of 90, October 2010 Table Found in Appendix 1 Table 1 The database used for this Report viii
Executive Summary The primary objective of Zimbabwe's coalition Government, born of the Global Political Agreement (GPA) of September 2008, was to lay the foundations for free and fair elections. The GPA itself only emerged after the elections of March-June 2008 in which the opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) won a parliamentary majority. This was then followed by a presidential election campaign of such surpassing violence that the MDC candidate, Mr Morgan Tsvangirai, withdrew rather than expose his followers to further brutality. After some pressure from Zimbabwe's neighbours in the Southern Africa Development Community (SADC), the GPA was signed. This allowed President Robert Mugabe to remain in power with Mr Tsvangirai as Prime Minister. The GPA called for a new constitution and new elections which would resolve Zimbabwe's decade-long crisis. This arrangement necessarily entrusted an utterly key role and mandate to the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission (ZEC). This was problematic, for the ZEC has major credibility problems due to its past use as a politicised and partisan tool of the ruling Zanu-PF Government. Hence, if fresh elections are to work, the credibility and capacity of the ZEC will be pivotal. Over the years numerous reports have been compiled and submitted to the electoral authorities about the grave deficiencies of the voters' roll, itself the responsibility of the Registrar-General of Elections, Mr Tobaiwa Mudede, a self-acknowledged Zanu-PF die-hard. On the sole occasion when any notice was taken of these exposés – the last report by the Zimbabwe Electoral Support Network (ZESN), a network of civil society organisations – the ZEC merely referred the problem back to Mr Mudede. This, of course, resulted in no remedial action. This Report sets out the detailed problems with the latest version (as of October 2010) of the voters' roll. It also suggests why some members of the ZEC are unfit to sit on a body which is currently the most important institution on which a democratic future for Zimbabwe depends. The Report also suggests that Mr Mudede cannot be the right man for the post of Registrar-General, for he has been largely responsible for the defective voters' rolls used in elections since 2000 and for the extremely flawed electoral processes witnessed in these polls. Any serious attempt to
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 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
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Page 26 and 27: to maintain a democratic façade, t
Page 28 and 29: elections. In these exceptional cir
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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
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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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