An elections observer mission from a key regional grouping raised concerns on Friday over the number of people who were turned away from polling stations during voting in Zimbabwe.
The observers from the 14-nation Southern African Development Community (SADC) also said in a statement that the elections on Thursday ”were conducted in an open, transparent and professional manner.”
”The SADC elections observer mission is, however, concerned with the number of people who were turned away from polling stations,” said a statement from South African minister Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka.
”It is still not clear to us exactly how many people were affected in this way as well as the reason for them not being able to cast their vote,” she said.
Zimbabweans went to the polls on Thursday to cast ballots in elections that pit the opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) against President Robert Mugabe’s ruling Zanu-PF party, which has been in power in the southern African country since independence 25 years ago.
The Zimbabwe Election Support Network, an elections monitoring group, said it estimated that 25% of voters had been turned away from the polls nationwide, with the highest number of Zimbabweans prevented from voting in the Midlands area and Harare.
”Of those turned away, a significant number were either not aware of the constituency boundaries or were turned away for failing to produce proper identification,” said Reginald Matchaba-Hove of the monitoring group.
Opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai complained that his MDC party was denied access to the voters register before Thursday’s voting.
The SADC observers also noted problems with equal access to public media and said opposition concerns over the use of indelible ink to mark ballots ”should be examined by relevant electoral authorities”.
”It is also the mission’s view that, although there were efforts to ensure the equitable access to the public media, there is still considerable room to improve in this area to allow the access to the state media by the opposition,” said Mlambo-Ngcuka in the statement.
But the 55-member team said it was unable to confirm allegations that food aid was used to buy votes in the campaign.
Election ‘seriously flawed’
The parliamentary elections in Zimbabwe were ”seriously flawed” and the nation’s people have been denied a free and fair chance to vote, British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw said on Friday.
”The full results of Zimbabwe’s parliamentary elections are not yet clear, but what is clear is that the elections were seriously flawed,” said Straw in a statement issued by the Foreign Office in London.
He added that Zimbabwe’s President Robert Mugabe ”has yet again denied ordinary Zimbabweans a free and fair opportunity to vote, further prolonging the political and economic crisis he has inflicted on their country”.
Zimbabwe’s opposition Movement for Democratic Change took the lead in early results from Thursday’s elections, winning victory in key cities, but the rural vote was expected to be decisive in the bid to unseat Mugabe’s ruling Zanu-PF party and end its 25-year monopoly on power.
Britain, the former colonial power in Zimbabwe, has led international criticism of Mugabe’s government. The president in turn accuses London of meddling in the country’s affairs.
Straw said the British government will be making a full statement ”once all the results are known and we have assessed all available reports”.
”But credible observers have noted that although there was less violence than during the 2000 and 2002 elections, harassment and intimidation by the ruling party and the government continued,” he said.
”There was some improvement in the mechanics of voting. But the voters’ roll was severely compromised and thousands were turned away. The electoral commission was neither independent nor effective.”
‘Far from satisfactory’
Zimbabwe’s March 31 elections were far from satisfactory, Democratic Alliance member of the South African parliamentary observer mission Roy Jankielsohn said on Friday.
”Nobody should be misled by the fact that voting day yesterday [Thursday] in Zimbabwe appears to have run smoothly,” he said in a statement.
The fact that election day was reportedly the calmest since independence is to be welcomed, but should not be allowed to mask the true reality of an election that was carefully manipulated to the extent that it cannot be considered a proper expression of the democratic will of the people of Zimbabwe.
”A blind focus on events on election day gives a false sense of the democratic crisis that exists in Zimbabwe,” Jankielsohn said.
Ever since its power was first threatened in the late 1990s, Zanu-PF has created an oppressive legislative and biased constitutional environment that stacks the cards heavily in its favour.
”It has also facilitated a sustained climate of violence and intimidation, with many NGOs and individual citizens informing us of how they had been attacked or intimidated by ruling-party members.
”We were also informed of how the last four-and-a-half years have had a chilling effect on the population, especially in rural areas, where the very real fear exists of violent reprisals if an area votes against the ruling party.
”We were also told about the use of food as a political tool, with ruling-party candidates having acted as food distributors.”
Jankielsohn said a number of other factors have also cast doubt on the freeness or fairness of the poll, including the governing party’s total control of the state media, the lack of independent radio or television stations, and the fact that the state media are used as a platform to demonise the opposition.
Credible reports of voters’ rolls packed with non-existent voters are also case for concern, while limited independent voter education, insufficient numbers of observers, and an electoral commission that was established far too late to function effectively are critical factors that need to considered by observers.
”The challenge now is for the countries of the region, and for South Africa in particular, to consider these factors before they legitimise what was a far from satisfactory election,” he said.
Journalist held
Meanwhile, a television correspondent for Swedish public broadcaster SvT was held on Friday by police in Zimbabwe, Sveriges Television reported.
It was the second time this week that Fredrik Sperling, who was accredited to cover the parliamentary elections, ran into trouble with the authorities.
On Wednesday, he was questioned for several hours at a police station after filming outside a farm previously owned by a white commercial farmer.
Sperling told colleagues he expects to be deported after having been stripped of his media accreditation. — AFP, Sapa-DPA, Sapa