SOUTH Africa's main opposition party, the Democratic Alliance (DA), has expressed serious concerns about the prospects for free and fair elections in Zimbabwe.
The DA parliamentarians, who are part of the Sadc observer mission which is already in Zimbabwe, on Tuesday submitted a preliminary report which said the odds were heavily stacked against the 29th March poll being genuinely democratic. The report 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 believed were hurdles for the electoral process.
They said they were worried that party agents and observers will not be allowed to witness the counting of presidential election ballots. This is because observers are accredited until 29th March ─ the polling day ─ making it impossible for them to be present when results are tabulated and announced. In a statement, the DA said: “This may already render the Presidential poll invalid before it has even begun.” The other members of the Sadc delegation later expressed concern over the manner in which the DA delegates were conducting themselves. They complained that the DA was asking too many tough questions to the Zimbabwean elections officials.
Kohler-Barnard and Masango, however told their counterparts that they would continue asking probing questions in an effort to clear the air on issues which were not clear.
“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,” said the two MPs to the other Sadc observers. DA MPs also identified several key issues that needed to be addressed, relating to constituency boundaries, the number of polling stations available in urban areas, alleged ‘ghost names’ on the voters’ roll, access to the media and the use of resources from state institutions (e.g. the Grain Marketing Board) as political campaign tools by the ruling party. DA observers also said voter education drives were inadequate, given that Zimbabweans will be faced with four different ballots for the first time. Amendments to the Electoral laws by President Mugabe, allowing police officers to assist illiterate voters inside polling stations, were said to be “highly intimidatory” and “a clear violation of the agreements reached during the South Africa mediation process.”
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