The atmosphere in Zimbabwe is characterised by anxiety and anger. Since midnight March 29th, 2008 Zimbabweans have been eager to hear the official pronouncement of results by the body running the elections – but to no avail.
Eventually pressure from civil society and the main opposition party, the MDC, resulted in the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission (ZEC) beginning to announce the results on Monday March 31st. The first batch of results was a mere six constituencies. It was at this juncture that people began to suspect underhand manoeuvres by the ruling ZANU-PF party to rig the elections. The reluctance by the ZEC to release all the results heightened fears of another stolen election in Zimbabwe. There is no objective reason whatsoever for the delay in the results given that the counting for the parliamentary election was already done and finished at the polling stations around the country.
The atmosphere in major cities of Zimbabwe is characterised by suspicion and restlessness. Some people are already celebrating the demise of Mugabe in various suburbs of Harare and Bulawayo but similar efforts have been thwarted in Masvingo. So far by 14:00 GMT, on Tuesday April 1st, the ZEC had announced results for 131 constituencies. According to their figures, ZANU-PF has won 64 and the MDC-Tsvangirai Faction 62 seats plus 5 going to the MDC-Mutambara faction.
The MDC, through its press briefings, is claiming a 60% of the vote for Morgan Tsvangirai in the presidential election against a distant 30% for Robert Mugabe. Extensive deployments of army and armed police continue to unfold in anticipation of a mass revolt against a stolen vote. The MDC Secretary General, Tendai Biti, said their results are in sync with those of independent election monitors from the Zimbabwe Election Support Network (ZESN). However, fears on the ground suggest that ZANU-PF is rigging the elections and will eventually announce Mugabe as the winner.
In the meantime, various civil society organisations will scrutinise and cross-check every detail and data tabulation. On another note, there are unconfirmed reports that the top military officials have met Mugabe and asked him to accept defeat. Such a step by Mugabe would however be highly unlikely given his insatiable desire for power. Closer analysis may point to a situation where ZANU-PF may agree to a government of national unity but through announcement of results and subsequent manoeuvres contain the tension and then gradually try to elbow out the MDC. A third scenario is the ability of Mugabe to map out an exit strategy that respects the will of the people. Without such a strategy, Mugabe would act against the will of the people.
The current wave of efforts by independent observers is putting pressure on ZEC to announce the presidential elections and not delay them any longer. The organisation Zimbabwe Lawyers for Human Rights has written to the ZEC to demand the release of results as a matter of urgency. The independent electoral monitoring body, Zimbabwe Election Support Network, has also called upon the ZEC to speed up the release of the results. The atmosphere of anger, suspicion, and anxiety continues to prevail.
A separate question, however, is whether it is the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission's duty and task to announce the results? The ZEC is hoodwinking people into believing that the official results for the parliamentary elections should be officially announced by them. According to Zimbabwean Law, this is not the case.
Only presidential election results are expected to come from the National Command Centre as provided by law in Section 110 of the Electoral Act.
Announcing the results of the parliamentary elections is the duty for ward and constituency election officers according to Sections 67 and 130 of the act. In other words, their announcement by the ZEC is not a legal requirement nor is it their duty to do so at the command centre. Those are the authoritative sources:
- Section 67 (1)
(1) As soon as the constituency elections officer has declared a candidate to be duly elected, he or she shall, without delay, transmit by telegram, telefacsimile or electronic mail in the prescribed form to the Chief Elections Officer, the names of the person declared duly elected, the day with effect from which he or she was declared elected, the number of votes received by the respective candidates and the number of rejected ballot papers. - Section 130(1) for council elections says:
(1) After ascertaining the result of the poll and any drawing of lots that may be required by section one hundred and twenty-nine, the Chief Elections Officer shall immediately declare the candidate or candidates, as the case may be, for whom the majority of votes have been given to have been duly elected and the number of votes given to each candidate.
In a sense, Zimbabweans are waiting for results at a level that is inconsequential at law. Even more efforts should be directed at gathering results – in particular for the parliamentary elections – directly at the constituency and ward levels.
Jubilee Masango
University of Zimbabwe