South African opposition observers say odds stacked against a free election

By Tererai Karimakwenda
25 March, 2008

South Africa’s main opposition party, the Democratic Alliance (DA), has expressed serious concerns about the prospects for free and fair elections in Zimbabwe. DA parliamentarians on the SADC observer mission already in Zimbabwe, submitted a preliminary report Tuesday that said “the odds are heavily stacked against the 29th March poll being genuinely democratic.” This was backed up by evidence from several briefings given to SADC observers in the country over the last five days.

The DA’s electoral observers are MP Dianne Kohler-Barnard and MP James Masango, who are part of the SADC observer mission, along with MPs from the ruling ANC party and from other African countries.
Kohler-Barnard and Masango identified key issues that they believe are hurdles for the electoral process. Most worrying is the fact that party agents and observers will not be allowed to witness the counting of presidential election ballots. This is because observers are accredited only until 29th March, making it impossible for them to be present when results are tabulated. A statement released by the DA said: “This may already render the Presidential poll invalid before it has even begun.

But the SADC delegation has expressed dissatisfaction with the tough questioning of Zimbabwe officials by Kohler-Barnard and Masango, who responded by saying; “... rest assured that DA representatives will continue to ask hard questions as is their duty as election observers. The people of Zimbabwe deserve nothing less.”

The DA MPs identified several key issues that need to be addressed, including the gerrymandering of constituency boundaries to favour ZANU-PF, the limited number of polling stations available in urban areas, the estimated 3 million “ghost names” on the voters roll, biased reports on the state controlled media and the use of resources from state institutions such as the Grain Marketing Board as political tools.

Also criticised by the DA observers were the voter education drives which they said were inadequate, given that Zimbabweans will be faced with four different ballots for the first time. Mugabe’s amendment to the electoral law, allowing police officers to “assist illiterate voters” inside polling stations, was viewed as “highly intimidatory” and “a clear violation of the agreements reached during the South Africa mediation process.”