Wikipedia

2005 Zimbabwean parliamentary election

This is an old revision of this page, as edited by Wizzy (talk | contribs) at 14:21, 14 March 2005 (→Intimidation of candidates and voters). The present address (URL) is a permanent link to this revision, which may differ significantly from the current revision.

Parliamentary elections are scheduled to be held in Zimbabwe on March 31, 2005, a date set by President Robert Mugabe on February 1; Mugabe himself was reelected president in 2002 and his term does not expire until 2008. March 31 will be a public holiday to enable easier voter participation. [1] The parliament will be dissolved on March 30, one day before the elections. [2] The voters' roll was closed on February 4. [3] Nomination courts sat on February 18 to receive names of those intending to contest in the polls (results).

The opposition Movement for Democratic Change, which will be challenging Mugabe's ruling ZANU-PF party, has complained that the country is not yet ready for the elections, but MDC leader Morgan Tsvangirai decided to contest the elections after initial uncertainty.

All of the 120 elected seats in the 150 seat parliament will be up for election. The last parliamentary elections were held in 2000. Electoral colleges for the election of 10 chiefs to the parliament will be held on April 8.


Polling stations

High Court Judge George Chiweshe, who chairs the recently established Zimbabwe Electoral Commission, stated that 8227 polling stations will be set up in all of the country's 10 provinces - more than double the number used in previous elections. [4]

Harare alone is expected to have 522 polling stations, up from 167 polling stations in the presidential elections. For the first time since independence from white minority rule in 1980, Zimbabwe will be holding elections on one day as opposed to two. Ballot counting will also take place at individual polling stations and new, translucent ballot boxes will replace wooden ones used in previous elections.

SADC rules

Zimbabwe ratified new Southern African Development Community rules in August 2004 governing principles and guidelines on elections; however, no reports on Zimbabwe's compliance have been issued by the body. One of the stipulations is that SADC monitors be invited 90 days before the poll.

By February 4, an SADC team tasked with the responsibility of ensuring that Zimbabwe complies with the regional protocol had yet to receive permission to visit. [5]

Monitoring

On February 19, 2005, 32 nations were invited by President Robert Mugabe to observe the parliamentary elections in Zimbabwe. [6] Domestic poll observers require a 'registration fee' of US$17 (in local currency) - approximately the monthly minimum wage. International observers (except South Africa) are required to pay US$300, while South African observers pay US$100. Of international observer teams, only South African ones have sufficient personnel and resources to cover rural areas.

Countries invited were predominantly from Africa, a partial list follows:-

Aziz Pahad, deputy foreign minister for South Africa, said the country has been invited to observe the Zimbabwean poll in at least five different capacities.

It has been invited as a member of SADC, as chair of the organ on politics, defence and security, and as a neighbouring country. The ruling African National Congress has also been asked to send an observer team, while parliament has set up a multi-party delegation.

The 20-member South African parliamentary observer mission will leave for Zimbabwe on March 14, and return to South Africa on April 3.

The 50-member SADC observer mission including 10 South African delegates headed by Home Affairs Minister Nosiviwe Mapisa-Nqakula, will leave on March 15. [8]

Five members of South Africa's governing African National Congress party arrived in Harare on March 10, the first foreign observers.

Free and Fair elections

The Congress of South African Trade Unions (COSATU)—a member of the South African ruling party alliance— sent a fact-finding mission in October 2004 to talk to the Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions (ZCTU) and research conditions for a fair poll. They were deported from Zimbabwe within hours after police broke up a meeting between them and ZCTU.

On February 2, 2005, a second mission led by Zwelinzima Vavi, Secretary-General of COSATU, was turned back [9] at Harare airport, charged under Section 18A of the Immigration Act which relates to prohibited immigrants. In response, George Bizos, a respected human rights lawyer, said that all Southern African Development Community members are allowed to enter Zimbabwe without applying for a visa. [10]

After a meeting the next day between the unions in South Africa Cosatu spokesperson Patrick Craven said "It is quite clear at the moment as things stand that there cannot be free and fair elections".

ZCTU requested that an independent electoral commission be established and international observers be allowed in the country, and the government also needed to scrap strict laws restricting the opposition's access to the media and barring it from holding public rallies and meetings without police permission. To achieve this they suggested that the date of the elections be postponed.

Participating parties

Some main party candidates

  • Heather Bennett, MDC
    • Roy Bennett's wife Heather Bennett is standing for Chimanimani rural district after the nomination court refused papers filed on behalf of her jailed husband. [11] [12] Roy Bennett's application for release before the elections, on the basis of good behaviour and dissolution of the parliament that ordered the incarceration, failed.

Independent candidates

Sikhumbuzo Ndiweni, a former ZANU PF Bulawayo Provincial Information and Publicity Secretary, is co-ordinating the Independent Candidates Solidarity Network. Members are:

  • Margaret Dongo (Harare Central)
  • Former Information Minister Jonathan Moyo (Tsholotsho)
    • The former information minister registered to run as an independent in the constituency [13] after he was excluded from running as the ZANU-PF candidate. The party had decided that a woman should contest the Tsholotsho constituency instead of him, a decision that was linked to Moyo's opposition to Joyce Mujuru. [14] He will be facing Musa Ncube-Mathema, the wife of Bulawayo governor Cain Mathema, standing for Zanu-PF.
    • In the 2000 election, Mtoliki Sibanda of the MDC won with 69% of the vote over Mathema of Zanu-PF. Sibanda will be defending his seat again in 2005.
  • Dunmore Makuwaza (Mbare)
  • Tendekai Mswata (St Mary's)
  • Fanuel Chiremba (Tafara-Mabvuku)
  • Peter Nyoni (Hwange East)
  • Charles Mpofu (Bulawayo South)
  • Leonard Nkala (Phelandaba/Mpopoma)
  • Stars Mathe (Pumula/Luveve)
  • Lloyd Siyoka (Beitbridge)
  • Godwin Shiri (Mberengwa East)

Independence celebrations

Zimbabwe's 25 year anniversary of independence, all under Robert Mugabe's rule, is on April 18, 2005. Zanu-PF wants these celebrations after the elections, not before, so they are unlikely to agree to a postponement.

Destabilisation

Lt-Gen Roméo Dallaire, a commander of a United Nations (UN) peace-keeping force during the 1994 Rwandan Genocide has warned [15] there is urgent need for regional and international intervention to prevent Zimbabwe’s political crisis from further deteriorating.

He drew parallels between the strife in the troubled Darfur region of Sudan, where there is international inaction, and Zimbabwe over which the SADC region and South Africa, in particular, have largely remained silent.

Intimidation of candidates and voters

The opposition MDC and Jonathan Moyo have alleged that voters have been threatened with starvation or violence if they fail to support Zanu-PF. [16] [17] No-go areas have been declared in Bindura. [18]

See also

Reference

Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=2005_Zimbabwean_parliamentary_election&oldid=11131926"