Leave poll decision to Zim

THE presidential, parliamentary and local government elections held in Zimbabwe on July 31 were widely anticipated by political commentators around the globe. This heightened anticipation stemmed from a widely held perception that, since this would be the first election being conducted under a unity government, it could be expected that the elections would be credible, free and fair.

Part of the anticipation was fuelled by a media perception that the MDC stood a realistic chance to overthrow democratically 33 years of Zanu-PF rule. Among reasons listed by the media were:

• Zimbabwe under Zanu-PF rule was economically bankrupt, politically ready for change and that Zanu-PF indigenisation policies had led to the destruction of the agricultural and related sectors;

• The perceived wholesale collapse of the economy would strengthen the MDC as it would be perceived as being a clean party;

• Moves by certain countries within the EU to look for ways to lessen the sanction burden on Zimbabwe would be viewed by the electorate as an achievement made possible only by the efforts of MDC leader Morgan Tsvangirai.

After the promulgation of the election date, efforts were made by SADC and the MDC-T, the faction led by Tsvangirai, to postpone the election for a month. Their reasoning was the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission (ZEC) would not be able to handle the logistics of an election within the specified time, the voters' roll would not be available in time for inspection and rectification of errors, and so the voters' roll might be manipulated by Zanu-PF to its advantage.

However, the Supreme Court dismissed all objections to the election date.

In the run-up to the election, President Robert Mugabe accredited only election observers from the AU, SADC and from countries that did not belong to global formations that had instituted punitive sanctions against Zimbabwe. Mugabe opposed the appointment of former Nigerian president Olusegun Obasanjo as head of the AU observer mission.

This objection was rejected by the AU commission chief Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma as unsubstantiated.

When the members of the armed forces cast their special votes, problems were experienced with a shortage of ballots and the process was not observed by any accredited observer mission. Furthermore, Mugabe denied access to most Western media in the belief that they would not be able to report in an unbiased manner due to their governments' views about Zimbabwe.

All this eroded the credibility of the election process.

According to media sources, long queues of Zimbabweans, ready to vote, formed at polling stations from as early as 4am on voting day.

However, some sources reported voters not being able to vote at their preferred voting stations where they voted in 2008.

They further reported that "millions" of ghost voters were included on the voters' roll.

According to some sources ghost voting stations with only Zanu-PF party agents present were found across the country.

This, according to such sources, was proof that the election was being rigged and as such could not be viewed as the genuine expression of the wishes of the people.

After the election results were released, Tsvangirai criticised the election process and the conduct of the ZEC.

His arguments against the validity of the election echoed the views expressed by the Western media in respect of ghost voters and voters not included on the voters' roll.

The SADC observer mission curiously only found that the election was free and did not proclaim judgment on the fairness of the election.

While Western governments were quick to declare the election rigged, only Botswana and Australia so far have called for a rerun of the election

A decision on the validity of the election process should not be dictated by the media – the Supreme Court of Zimbabwe is the ultimate body that should give a verdict on such.

Patrick Sekoe, Buffalo Flats, East London