Elections in Africa have been the cornerstone of Democracy. When they are free, fair and credible obviously. However, disputed elections have given birth to illegitimate authoritarian regimes that will not just give up their ill-gotten power without a fight. This means that they will resolve to all unorthodox means to make sure that there are never genuine elections that will foster their removal from office. If it means they have to kill, they do so without fear of the rule of law knocking on their doors because they have the judiciary in their pockets. This is the situation in the former breadbasket of Africa, former because the basket which used to carry bread is now used to carry water.
The Southern African state is looking forward to heading for the polls in August 2023, the exact date which is still yet to be announced by Mr. Mnangagwa, the incumbent. Something he was expected, by law, to have done on 28 May but still hasn’t (this is 30 May I am writing this article). Currently, the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission is conducting Voter’s roll inspection, which has been the center of contention that has motivated the penning down of this paper.
The Voter’s Roll has many irregularities. It’s either a registered voter cannot find their name on the roll, or, if they do, they find their name written 3 times on 3 different polling stations, which is very suspicious. Through the contested delimitation project run by ZEC, people were moved to vote at polling stations that are unreasonably far from where they reside and where they last voted from. This is to frustrate the voters and discouraging them from exercising their constitutionally protected right to vote and elect a leader of their choice.
It looks like ZEC has more than one voter’s roll. Tell me something more alarming. Of greater concern is the fact that the opposition does not have access to the voter’s roll. Meaning that the opposition does not know the number of people that have registered to vote. For them it is like going into an exam not knowing what you are going to be examined on. The silence of the ruling party on these irregularities can only leave one to suspect that the ruling party is in cahoots with the shady electoral commission. And depriving the Opposition of the voter’s roll means that stealing or rigging the election has already started. If the Opposition does not have the voter’s roll, ZANU PF, like it has always allegedly done, will make ZEC give them whatever number of ghost voters it needs to beat the opposition in the general election. Even when the numbers do not tally, who is going to know, the citizens do not have the voter’s roll.
Urgently, the Opposition needs to force ZEC to allow for independent auditing of the Roll. ZEC needs to give the voter’s roll to the opposition and all civil union organizations, for that is permitted by law. In a normal country, where this fails to happen, strategically, the opposition must seek a court order compelling ZEC to comply with this constitutional demand. The opposition, particular the Citizens Coalition for Change leader Adv. Nelson Chamisa has always said they have a plan. Now is the time to start walking this talk. I hope their plan is not walking into an election without the actual, independently audited voter’s roll and expect ZEC to announce them as winners after elections. As citizens, we are just waiting for leadership to sound the whistle and do what needs to be done. Until Zimbabwe is Free.
