WAS ZIMBABWE POLL STOLEN?
KRIEGLER: ZANU-PF STRANGLEHOLD CRITICAL FOR WIN
There have been allegations of rigging in the counting of votes in the Zimbabwe elections, but respected retired judge Johann Kriegler, former head of SA’s Independent Electoral Commission, believes otherwise.
That the MDC received over 44% of the vote is ‘remarkably good’ in a result that is not ‘surprising’.
Former head of the Independent Electoral Commission (IEC), retired Justice Johann Kriegler, says while the Zimbabwe elections result may be genuine, the ruling Zanu-PF’s pervasive influence was a critical factor.
President Emmerson Mnangagwa won six of the 10 provinces on his way to just above 50% of the vote, while his closest rival, Movement for Democratic Change (MDC)-Alliance leader Nelson Chamisa, garnered just over 44%.
The MDC-Alliance says the polls were rigged and they will challenge the results in court.
“The first victim of an election is always the truth,” Kriegler, Freedom Under Law chairperson, told The Citizen yesterday.
The 85-year-old headed the IEC, which oversaw the first South African democratic election in 1994.
“I don’t think the result is at all surprising considering the stranglehold Zanu-PF has had on the country during its administration and rule of communities in particular,” he said. “The fact that the MDC presidential candidate received more than 44% of the vote is remarkably good.”
Kriegler said in general, and not looking at any specific reports on what was observed in Zimbabwe, only an idiot would try to steal an election on election day.
“It’s how you’ve kept the voters roll over the years. You have complete control over the media as the ruling party, you have complete control of newsworthiness such as the opening of schools, bridges and roads, maintenance and support systems for the elderly and the needy,” Kriegler said.
“I think there is no reason to doubt the result is genuine.”
Up to 153 MDC supporters were killed in the 2008 general elections, while allegations of violence and election-rigging have followed elections in the country under former president Robert Mugabe for decades.
Chamisa may still face accusations of trying to derail the electoral process after he declared himself the winner ahead of the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission (ZEC), which led to widescale rioting in Zimbabwe’s capital Harare.
On Tuesday, he claimed victory in a now deleted tweet.
The violence of the following two days is reported to have left at least six people dead.
Unrelenting, Chamisa tweeted on Wednesday: “We have won the popular vote. You voted for total Change in this past election! We have won this one together. No amount of results manipulation will alter your WILL [sic]”.
Final results – Mnangagwa with 2 460 463 (50.8%) votes to Chamisa’s 2 147 436 (44.3%) – were announced in the early hours of yesterday morning by ZEC.
Maja Kocijancic, representing the European Union (EU), said the elections of July 30 were “held in a largely peaceful atmosphere”.
“The first findings of the EU Election Observation Mission, headed by chief observer Elmar Brok indicate that the elections were competitive, and that overall political freedoms were respected during the campaign,” she said.
Brok had noted “strong concerns” over some pre-electoral practices, such as intimidation of voters, ZEC’s lack of transparency in preparations, media bias, and problems around polling stations on election day.
Zimbabwe’s Zanu-PF government must have been more than a little worried. It was risking it all on a roll of the dice: the unfettered will of the electorate. For the first time in 16 years, there were election observers from the EU, the US, and the Commonwealth, instead of only from the dependably one-eyed observers sent by SADCC and the AU.
This was a high-stakes gamble by Emmerson Mnangagwa. Effectively, for the first time in almost two decades the results would not be printed before the ballot papers.
As it happens, it was not even close. Zanu-PF trounced the main contender, the MDC Alliance, led by Nelson Chamisa.
The polls had barely closed before Chamisa proclaimed that MDC figures showed it had “resoundingly” won the election and all that was left was for the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission to announce his victory. Any delay or result to the contrary, would be proof that Zanu-PF had stolen the election.
It was a clever, manipulative ploy; the kind that SA’s populist puppeteer, EFF leader Julius Malema, would doubtlessly admire. It was also a cynically incendiary action in a country where political violence is always bubbling.
When the ZEC delayed announcing the presidential result to allow the trickle-release of parliamentary seats, the firing circuit was completed. Furious MDC supporters took to the streets and some stoned the security forces, which opened fire and killed at least six.
It’s an unhappy reversion to entrenched antipathies that Zimbabwe, which is trying to rejoin the democratic world, cannot afford. And while Zanu-PF is undoubtedly loathsome, it is not for the world to dictate to Zimbabweans which swamp creature they should vote for.
While I am sceptical that Zanu-PF would have surrendered power if it had lost, there is no reason, yet, to believe they did not win fairly.
The MDC has provided no evidence of the enormous scale of rigging necessary to reverse its self-proclaimed “exceedingly good” majority into a miserable 53 seats in a 210-seat chamber. It is difficult to believe, also, that such massive fraud would escape the notice of literally thousands of officials who oversaw the process.
Although they had concerns over state media bias and a counting process that needed improvement, the African observer groups concluded that the election was largely in line with the law. The EU observer mission’s assessment, too, was that despite the “unlevel playing field”, the election appeared substantively fair.
The EU did, however, leave the door open to a revision of opinion. The head of the EU observer mission said he did not yet know whether the shortcomings would have a material effect on the outcome of the vote.
That’s one of those cryptic equivocations that one must expect from a cover-your-arse career politician. It presumably means that unless the MDC gets the results overturned in the courts, or EU self-interests dictate otherwise, the result will be accepted but ring-fenced with caveats.
These caveats will presumably include ZanuPF having to show some commitment to democracy and the rule of law, going into the future.
That is exactly how it should be: some carrot, some stick.
While Zanu-PF is undoubtedly loathsome, it is not for the world to dictate to Zimbabweans which swamp creature they should vote for.