More rigging as ZANU-PF uses councillors as polling officers

By Tererai Karimakwenda
21 March, 2008

Despite the announcement this week by the chairman of the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission (ZEC), George Chiweshe, that teachers would not be used as polling officers during the elections, it has been discovered that several headmasters will be acting as polling officers in the Lowveld area. But that is because many of them are actually ZANU-PF councillors.

Chiredzi farmer and activist Gerry Whitehead has exposed the fact that at least three councillors are serving as presiding officers in the Chiredzi area. He said these ZANU-PF officials have all, in the past, received benefits from the ruling party, including farms and vehicles. They still have access to scarce fuel and food supplies from the government’s Grain Marketing Board.

Whitehead has provided the names of these presiding officers. In the Chiredzi South Constituency there is a headmaster named Mugwadia at Sengwe Secondary School, who is also a ZANU PF councillor for Ward 15. Boli Secondary School’s headmaster is named Ndebele, and he is the ZANU PF councillor for Ward 12. Then there is Amos Ndirowe, headmaster at Malisanga Primary School and a former ZANU PF councillor.
Whitehead believes that close scrutiny of the people that THE ZEC has hired would reveal that this is happening countrywide.

He said that a letter exposing these people and objecting to them as presiding officers was handed to ZEC officials in Chiredzi, by the MDC Chiredzi South Candidate Joseph Chirovi on Thursday. We were not able to contact ZEC officials for comment.

There is much evidence of rigging in these elections and a lot of it is being documented by opposition parties and civil organisations.
There is growing dissent within the ranks of ZANU-PF and the economy has totally collapsed. Under these pressures, observers believe Mugabe is panicking and trying to manipulate as many electoral mechanisms as possible to ensure victory on March 29th. The consensus is that he has no chance of winning any election that is free and fair.