MDC-T begs EU to maintain sanctions - report

The MDC-T has requested European Union (EU) members to ensure that the bloc maintains economic sanctions on Zimbabwe, basing its argument on claims of fraudulent elections and a compromised judiciary that scuttled its parliamentary poll petitions, the Sunday Mail reported.
The EU is scheduled to meet later this month to review the sanctions. Interestingly, it emerged last week that the party apologised to British Ambassador to Zimbabwe Ms Deborah Bronnert for supplying her with the same false election information on which it hopes to build the sanctions case. The ambassador was embarrassed after she regurgitated, on international television, claims that 10 000 out of 17 000 voters in a particular constituency were assisted to cast ballots on July 31 last year in a vote-rigging plot. MDC-T insiders told The Sunday Mail that the party submitted a "dossier" to EU Ambassador to Zimbabwe Mr Aldo Dell'Ariccia and embassies of EU member countries in Harare on January 31. The insiders said the opposition party wants the European grouping to extend the embargo, on the basis of the five claims it has been harping on since the elections. The claims are election fraud, a compromised judiciary, the absence of media reforms, the indigenisation policy, and the role of the military in politics. These claims are despite documented evidence that the party has no proof of any electoral fraud committed by the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission (Zec), Zanu-PF or any party that participated in the polls. MDC-T secretary-general Mr Tendai Biti could not be reached for comment yesterday while party spokesperson Mr Douglas Mwonzora said he was not aware of the "dossier" and referred further inquiries to Mr Biti. Mr Dell'Ariccia said his office has not received any reports from the MDC-T.
"We have not received any report from the MDC-T on the sanctions issue," he said. Asked if any other local organisations had submitted such reports, he said: "Everyday, I receive tens of documents about the situation in the country, but to date, I haven't received a document from the MDC-T concerning the review of the measures against Zimbabwe. "The date (for the sanctions review)  is not fixed, but it is  likely  to   be  the second half of this month. It will be the decision of the EU Council. We will call a Press conference once we have been advised of the date." Sources said indications were that the British Embassy, through its Department for International Development (DFID), funded the MDC-T election campaign. "That they failed to recognise the election outcome is a matter of sour grapes because their preferred party did not win. The sanctions are meant to inflict damage on the economy, preparing for a resurgence of the MDC-T ahead of the 2018 elections," said a source. Two letters in our possession show that while the MDC-T is preparing the so-called dossiers on purported electoral fraud to aid its case for sanctions renewal, the party has been, in other official communication with individual diplomatic missions represented here, apologising for supplying the same embassies with "apparently false and misleading information on the electoral malpractices that were witnessed during the July 2013 harmonised elections". In a letter responding to earlier correspondence from Ambassador Bronnert, dated August 20, 2013, which sought to highlight the diplomat's "concern over misleading election data" supplied to her office by the MDC-T, Mr Biti profusely apologised for supplying "ill-informed electoral statistics" to the embassy. "The Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) wishes to give its sincere apology for providing you with apparently false and misleading information on the electoral malpractices that were witnessed during the July 2013 harmonised elections," he said. "Part of that information suggested that in one given constituency about 10 000 of the 17 000 voters were assisted to cast their ballots. It has come to our realisation that such information was blatantly false and we take full responsibility for such a mishap . . . We, therefore, sincerely apologise for the embarrassment our ill-informed electoral statistics has caused," reads part of the letter. Ms Bronnert, through a projects officer at the embassy, Ms Madelaine Johnston, had earlier written to Mr Biti on August 10, 2013, wishing "to register disquiet over misleading election information related to the 31 July 2013 polls which was received from your party". She explained that the misleading information "related to the polling processes" and the MDC-T's "monitoring efforts" which purported to have "unearthed, inter alia, that about 10 000 people were assisted to vote on election day in a certain constituency". She categorically states that "such information was not correct" although she had already granted interviews to international news organisations where she peddled the same false information. Part of the letter reads, "Unfortunately, based on this incorrect information, the British Ambassador, Her Excellency, Deborah Bronnert, went on to give comments on the July 2013 polls." While the MDC-T confessed and apologised to the British over the false information, the same British Embassy has reportedly provided money for yet another dubious electoral fraud information-gathering exercise funded to the tune of US$80 000. The money was provided through the Election Resource Centre (ERC), the MDC-T's election directorate disguised as a non-governmental organisation. The ERC, in a purported voter registration audit, from which the party "gathered" its so-called evidence of electoral fraud, admits that the attempted audit of the voters' roll, for all intents and purposes, failed due to technical and methodological challenges beyond the organisation's capacity to rectify. The ERC admits that the machine that it used to carry out the optical character recognition (OCR) process to convert scanned PDF copies of the voters' roll into some analysable excel documents failed to successfully convert the files. In the end, the organisation managed to convert files for 112 wards only out of the total 1 958 wards in the country. Despite these technical shortcomings, the ERC, working with Derek Matyszak of the Research and Advocacy Unit (RAU) and Topper Whitehead, a self-styled expert on the voters' roll in Zimbabwe, claims to have unearthed glaring shortcomings on the voters' roll. The organisation claims that there was deliberate "over-registration of voters" in so-called Zanu-PF strongholds. The organisation cites 11 constituencies: Chiredzi West, Dangamvura-Chikanga (won by MDC-T's Anold Tsunga) Mount Darwin West, Mbare, Harare South, Umguza, Mwenezi West, Goromonzi South, Mbire, Chirumanzu and Chiredzi South which had above 40 000 registered voters when the maximum number a constituency can have is 33 566. It also makes a case for under-registration in constituencies such as Mufakose, Glen Norah, Gutu North, Mbizo, Bikita West, Lupane West Chikomba East and Zaka North where registered voters were below the prescribed 22 378. However, what the party fails to take into consideration is that no delimitation of constituencies was done after the registration exercise due to the little time-frame that was between May 31, 2013, the date when President Mugabe was compelled by the Constitutional Court to hold elections, and July 31, 2013, the last day on which the President could comply with the court ruling. Given this scenario, there were bound to be changes in the total number of people registered to vote in particular constituencies with the increase in new registrants. This meant some constituencies ended up having more than the upper limit prescribed for by law while migration, especially in urban areas, meant some constituencies ended up with fewer people than the number prescribed by law. The so-called audit, however, dispels the tired claim by the MDC-T that there are a lot of deceased people on the voters' roll. The party often buttresses its argument by pointing to the so-called existence of  "suspiciously very old people found on the voters' roll".  The audit, however, only found three people under this category, Chiranda Sukani (1911), Chilevana Chiringei-Mudumelana (1908) and Chevani Jackson (1914). While the two letters expose the false information that the MDC-T is supplying to the international community, they also confirm what Zanu-PF has always accused the MDC-T of being funded by foreign agents of regime change. Mr Biti lets the cat out of the bag when he says, "The MDC is grateful of your continued support to the realisation of effective democratic change in Zimbabwe," while Ms Bronnert signs off by saying, "We value your firm efforts towards strengthening democracy in Zimbabwe." A two-page document prepared by MDC-T secretary for international relations for party leader Mr Morgan Tsvangirai on February 23, 2012 when he met Ms Bronnert and DFID director Mr Dave Fish  shows the "continued support" Mr Biti talks of is financial. In the document, Mr Tsvangirai tells Ms Bronnert, "I know that Jameson Timba, Elton Mangoma and Tendai Biti have spoken with you in recent days about desperate need for financial support to help level the (electoral) playing field."  Mr Tsvangirai also professes that this was an issue ultra vires the provisions of the law regarding the financing of political parties hence the provision of funds has to be clandestine. "We have agreed to share our strategy with you - any potential donor to our cause will wish to be clear what they are contributing to. I understand this is a tricky issue (funding the MDC campaign), but we know that if we can fund more effective organisation and communication, especially in the rural areas, we will prevail in the election when it comes."