Local Observers Raise Red Flag on Polls

By Mandla Tshuma

BULAWAYO – Civil society organisations monitoring polls in Matabeleland have raised a red flag over the political environment that has been obtaining ahead of Monday’s watershed polls.

The three organisations, namely Christian Legal Society, Masakhaneni Projects Trust and Habakkuk Trust, have been monitoring the political situation in some parts of Matabeleland for the past eight months.

As part of their monitoring mechanism, the non-governmental organisations (NGOs) through a Joint Election Project, deployed long-term observers last December in areas that include Matobo, Bulawayo, Umzingwane and Gwanda.

Addressing a joint press conference in Bulawayo Wednesday evening, Christian Legal Society executive director, Gerald Matiba, said they had been monitoring the electoral playing field with an interest in malpractices that are crucial in determining whether an election is free and fair. He said they made a number of observations likely to impact on the outcome of the polls.

“From the information gathered during the pre-election period, we are concerned to note the continued abuse of government food aid and presidential inputs to further political expedience,” said Matiba.

He said it was regrettable that traditional leaders continued to play the role of agents for political parties and in some instances were being used to mobilise people to attend political meetings.

“This act is in direct defiance of their constitutional mandate and at the same time a violation of the fundamental rights and freedoms of others who do not support that political party.

“Last week, our observer mission attended a Zanu PF rally in Umzingwane District where a headman and a village Head in Ward 7 openly pledged their allegiance to the party,” said Matiba.

Matiba said hate speech, tribal sentiments and inflammatory statements had also been recorded in some rallies and political meetings they attended.

“Some rallies conducted by the ruling party involved the use of state resources including government vehicles which were being used in some cases to carry people to the rallies or the equipment,” said Matiba.

He said their observer mission also reacted to the social media reports over the postal voting process which took place at Ross Camp.

“Even though there is no law that states that ZEC should be present during postal voting, administratively they should have been there or should have been informed that the postal voting process had started. At one meeting recently, one commissioner even admitted that blunder,” bemoaned Matiba.

He, however, said apart from that, there had been positive engagement between ZEC and civil society organisations.