Trick or treat - how to rig an election

author/source:ZWNEWS
published:Thu 7-Mar-2002
posted on this site:Thu 7-Mar-2002
Article Type : News

The Government of Zimbabwe has been stealing the forthcoming Zimbabwean elections since before the parliamentary elections of 2,000. But it still has one more trick up its blood-stained sleeve

The various observers now in Zimbabwe have arrived in the last few weeks. Hence they will not have witnessed the last twenty two months during which 75% of Zimbabweans have been exposed in some way or another to state brutality. They will not have seen the beatings by Zanu PF, the destruction of the MDC infrastructure, the attacks upon just about anyone, the creation of no go areas, the mutilations and murders, the imposition of starvation on the many and the rewards for the Zanu PF faithful. They may not be aware of the subversion of the judiciary and the shaping of sinister laws that deliver basic freedoms, and the election arrangements, into the gift of Zanu PF. They may not have heard the poisonous and incessant state monopoly of the airwaves. They may not have smelled the fear. This might tempt them to subscribe to the informed view of Theo- Ben Guribab, Namibian Foreign Minister, who told us at the end of February that there is no crisis in Zimbabwe, just "manageable violence". Now there’s a concept for the twenty-first century.

Mugabe has driven thousands from their homes and then said that only at home can they vote. He has sought to disenfranchise the whites and expatriates. The harsh fact is that Tsvangirai starts about a quarter of a million votes down on registration alone. When we add on the terror, the unilateral propaganda and the bribery, no sane commentator could question that the playing field is grotesquely tilted ("I do not like the assumption that unless Mugabe or Zanu PF loses the election it will not be free and fair" - President Mkapa of Tanzania.) No doubt the observers will be taking all that into account when they pass judgement on the elections. No doubt at all ..

But that was only the start - a long horrible start though it has been. Now we come to the crunch. As in 2000 Mugabe's thugs will be sauntering around the polling booths just to make the point. Unlike in 2000 they will also be inside doing their patriotic duty as members of the Electoral Supervisory Commission and, where necessary, turning away voters who have mysteriously disappeared from the electoral rolls in the last few months. In this capacity they will also have responsibility for the supervision and transportation of boxes. This should give them ample opportunity to stuff the boxes with fake votes or, better still, just ditch the original box and replace it with one they prepared earlier.

In actual fact this sort of rigging is not that easy for it requires co-ordination and trust. Driving into a village and beating up women at random - very Zanu PF, very war vet. But printing, marking and distributing millions of fake votes, preparing and stuffing fake boxes and then arranging for them to be switched - not so war vet. There is always the danger of their being caught in the act by an observer with integrity (there are some) or a camera crew or by an outraged crowd. More to the point there is the danger that if things do not go exactly as Mugabe plans then in a few months' time youth brigade corporal "Pol Pot" will be telling an interested commission how war vet commander "Mau Mau Rasputin" threw the real ballot boxes into Lake Kariba. Always embarrassing that sort of thing. So Zanu PF have another plan ..

The real danger comes beyond the counting centres as it did in the 2000 elections. In come the ballot boxes, off go the counters, off go the check counters, all decent and above board. The (fictional) constituency of Guruvi Rock returns 5,000 votes for Tsvangirai and 2,400 for Mugabe.

Off go the numbers by means yet to be described and strangely, curiously, when they arrive at their destination either at provincial or national level they have undergone a strange transformation: Mugabe has picked up an extra 1800 votes in transit and Tsvangirai shed them. Mugabe is now a 1000 votes ahead. "Where are the results for Guruvi Rock" [ ask a couple of observers with cellphones but such records are not available "at the present time" and before you know it the Guruvi Rock return is but one of many results merged in a larger pot. No real conspiracy required - just a few Zanu PF worthies with red pens. And before too long Brigadier Douglas Nyikayaramba, chief election officer, a man with impeccable military credentials, will be standing up and announcing that Mugabe has scraped in by 52% to 47% . "A close result, a triumph for democracy" says Theo-Ben Guribab "and a defeat for the racist, neo-imperialist, European running dogs." A terrible defeat for the people of Zimbabwe too, but then perhaps Mr Guribab would just regard that as "manageable democracy:.

That is what Zanu PF did in 2000. That is what they will try to do again. Unless you, and thousands like you, can stop them.

This might tempt them to subscribe to the informed view of Theo- Ben Guribab, Namibian Foreign Minister, who told us at the end of February that there is no crisis in Zimbabwe, just "manageable violence". Now there's a concept for the twenty-first century.

Mugabe Talks of Retribution After Zimbabwe Vote: Places Army on High Alert [Excerpt] HARARE (Reuters) - Just over two days before Zimbabwe's closest-fought presidential election, Robert Mugabe warned he would pursue his challenger once the voting was over.

Opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai has been accused of treason over a secretly recorded video purporting to show him discussing Mugabe's assassination with Canadian consultants who were actually working for Mugabe.

A private Zimbabwean newspaper reported Thursday that Mugabe's government had placed the army on high alert, recalled soldiers from leave and ordered those who live outside military barracks to stay home, ready to deal with possible trouble after the elections next Saturday and Sunday.

The weekly Financial Gazette also said the government had withdrawn some troops from the Democratic Republic of the Congo to beef up security and repeated remarks made by one Mugabe's senior officials early this week that the ruling ZANU-PF party would support a military coup if Mugabe lost power.

Mugabe told a rally in eastern Zimbabwe Wednesday that Tsvangirai would have to answer for the alleged murder plot after the elections.

"No murderer will go unpunished. No one we know to have planned such deeds will escape," said Mugabe, promising post-election retribution against those he said had committed crimes against Zimbabwe, though he mentioned no names. [End Excerpt]

...("I do not like the assumption that unless Mugabe or Zanu PF loses the election it will not be free and fair" - President Mkapa of Tanzania.)...

Good catch, Clive.

Let's call a spade a spade. Not one other African 'leader' has been critical of, or remonstrated, with Mugabe. They all share responsibility for his tyranny and crimes. It's sad to see that the Commonwealth has this week proven as impotent as the OAU. I wonder which African 'president' will be the next Mobutu, Amin, or Mugabe?

As in 2000 Mugabe's thugs will be sauntering around the polling booths just to make the point. Unlike in 2000 they will also be inside doing their patriotic duty as members of the Electoral Supervisory Commission and, where necessary, turning away voters who have mysteriously disappeared from the electoral rolls in the last few months. In this capacity they will also have responsibility for the supervision and transportation of boxes. This should give them ample opportunity to stuff the boxes with fake votes or, better still, just ditch the original box and replace it with one they prepared earlier.

I'd been wondering where Donna Brazille and those vote counters in Palm Beach were off to.

Perhaps the continent of Africa should be left to simmer in its own juices for a century or two.

In his mighty wartime poem "The Stars Go Over The Lonely Ocean," Robinson Jeffers writes:

"The world's in a bad way, my man,
And bound to be worse before it mends.
Better lie up here in the mountains
Four or five centuries
While the stars go over the lonely ocean."

...and the longer I look at the the mess the rest of the world has made for itself, and seeks to impose on us, the more strongly I feel that Jeffers had exactly the right idea.

Let's start with Africa.

Freedom, Wealth, and Peace,
Francis W. Porretto
Visit The Palace Of Reason: http://palaceofreason.com

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