Zimbabwe - Elections 2000 - Sustainable Democracy

The people of Zimbabwe made a strong case for peace and calm as voting on the second and final day of the fifth parliamentary elections proceeded throughout the country without fear, intimidation or violence.

In the farmlands of Mashonaland East, where some of the first violent occupations of white-owned commercial farms by landless peasants and war veterans began three months ago, tranquility punctuated the atmosphere, the voting reduced to trickles in some places as people flocked to church at the break of dawn. More voters were expected later in the day.

Polling officers reported high turnouts on the first day and attributed the slump in participation today in the Marondera constituencies, east of the capital Harare, to the fact that the majority of the people had already cast ballots on the day before.

National radio reported high turnouts on the second day of voting in the Mashonaland and Manicaland provinces. The three Matebeleland provinces, which have been the bedrock of opposition to the ruling Zimbabwe African National Union-Patriotic Front (ZANU-PF), also reported heavy voting.

The peaceful conduct of elections thus far allays some of the fears by independent observers that the period of the polls and the aftermath would be violence-ridden. More than 30,000 police officers deployed at every station have helped to maintain order after a highly emotive, often violent campaign that has seen the deaths of 30 people.

Much depends on the political leadership’s acceptance of the results of the polls, expected later tomorrow (Monday) and Tuesday.

Both President Robert Mugabe and main opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai of the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) have publicly said they would accept the results of the most competitive elections in the country’s 20-year old history.

This public show of commitment to peace is expected to have a positive effect on supporters around the country, who many have feared, would react to defeat or victory in a way that disrupts peace.

“This is like a football match”, remarked one policeman at a rural poll “you get hurt when your team loses but at the end of the day, you congratulate the winner and drink a beer over it!”

There are high expectations from both ZANU-PF and MDC of victory and a mass of contradictory predictions from experts and pollsters, clearly at sea with the complexity of the likely voting patterns. The ruling party is given an advantage in the rural areas where 70 percent of the people are said to live while the MDC is favoured to win in the urban constituencies.

Just how well each party will fare in the other’s stronghold is a matter that the voters would finally decide on at the close of the polls, 7 p.m tonight.

Counting will begin at 8 a.m. Monday with early results expected by mid-morning. Allegations of vote-rigging which have marred this massive and peaceful turnout so far seem unlikely. Last night ballot boxes were sealed and locked by polling agents and presiding officers. Police in secure buildings guarded them and party agents were invited to sleep with the boxes overnight.

This morning all sealed boxes were checked by presiding officers and party agents before being reopened for voting. Few problems were reported.

The counting process is also supposed to be foolproof according to Mariyawanda Nzuwah, chair of the Election Directorate. When polls close at 7 p.m., if queues still exist, the stations will remain open until everyone at the station has cast their ballot. The boxes are then sealed in the presence of monitors, observers and party agents and transported to counting stations. Monitors and police will accompany the ballot boxes and once again monitors will be allowed to sleep with the boxes to ensure no tampering occurs.

In the morning polling officers must certify that each box is intact, along with its seals and locks. Only then will the counting begin.

Electoral authorities have accredited most of the civil society monitors who were left waiting late yesterday day for their cards, and polling stations today were being overseen, in most cases, by at least three or four local monitors.

Foreign observers from the European Union (EU) and the SADC Parliamentary Forum, SADC Electoral Commissions Forum and scores of others, are spread out across the nation’s 120 constituencies, closely watching the voting process. Most have expressed confidence in the voting process so far.

For Mugabe the day was business as usual. He met in Harare with the presidents of Namibia and the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), Sam Nujoma and Laurent Desire Kabila, to discuss ways of hastening the implementation of the Lusaka Peace Accords.

Constitutionally, the president has two more years before he faces the voters in 2002.

Tsvangirai, whose party has strongly opposed Zimbabwe’s military involvement in the DRC, met with his senior advisors today.

If the politicians follow the lead of the voters, the results of the election should not cause Zimbabwe any major problems once they are finalized (SARDC).