Centre for Community Development in Zimbabwe

Presidential Run-Off an Electoral Charade

The presidential run-off held today in Zimbabwe is an electoral charade and falls short at every level of the process to be passed as democratic, free or fair.The Centre for Community Development in Zimbabwe (CCDZ) deployed undercover informants who unearthed fraudulent activities carried out by the surrogates of the ZANU PF candidate President Robert Mugabe.

In most parts of the country, voters were frog-marched to the polling stations by the youth militia to vote for ZANU PF.In Harare's surbubs of Glenview, Mabvuku, Tafara, Dzivarasekwa, Mufakose, Highfield , Kuwadzana and Budiriro scores of voters were threatened and asked to go and vote for President Mugabe if they still wanted to live.The voters were asked to record the serial numbers of the ballot papers issued to them by the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission (ZEC) so that they take these to ZANU PF after casting their vote.The exercise was done so that ZANU PF would know who the voters had voted for.

CCDZ also received reports of voter intimidation in Murewa, Mutoko, Marondera, Mudzi, Goromonzi, Norton, Wedza, Chinhoyi, Rusape, Mutasa, Macheke, Chiweshe, Mazowe, Zvishavane, Bindura, Mutare, Masvingo and Shamva.In these areas voters were asked to surrender their national registration documents and only collect them after casting their vote for President Mugabe.CCDZ also received information that the youths and war veterans beat up all the people who did not have the red ink accusing them of heeding the call by Movement for Democratic Change leader Morgan Tsvangirai to stay away from the sham election.

In Glenview 1 surburb in Harare, scores of voters were forced to vote for President Mugabe and record the serial numbers of the ballot papers and take these to a ZANU PF woman residing in the surburb.

Voter Apathy

In the low density surbubs of Harare, the people heeded opposition and civil society calls to boycott the run-off election.Polling stations visited by the CCDZ recorded low voter turnouts.Some polling centres visited by CCDZ in Mt Pleasant, Borrowdale, Avondale, Belvedere, Milton Park, Alexandra Park, Highlands, Chisipite and Greystone Park did not have any queues in sharp contrast to the record turnout during the 29 March harmonized elections.

The voter apathy in high-income surbuban areas could have been replicated in the countryside if voters were not frog-marched to the polling stations by ZANU PF militia.

Way Forward

We join forces with other pro-democracy groups in calling for an immediate end to State-sponsored violence.The Centre for Community Development In Zimbabwe condemns the ongoing violence and threats by ZANU PF militia to intensify retributive action regardless of the outcome of today's "poll".We call upon the Southern African Development Community (SADC) and the African Union (AU) to reign in on the regime of President Mugabe and urge him to stop the violence being instigated by his surrogates against unarmed civilians.We specifically call upon the AU to censure the Harare regime at an AU Heads of State and Government Summit in Cairo next week.The AU and UN must send to Zimbabwe a joint Peacekkeeping force without delay inorder to save limb and life.We also applaud the proposal by Italy that all European Union (EU) diplomats be recalled back until such time the government of Zimbabwe halts the ongoing abuses.

Issued on 27/06/2008

Advocacy and Community Organizing
Centre for Community Development in Zimbabwe