Opinion / Columnist
Chaos in Bulawayo over postal votes proves the ballot is not secure and likewise so, too is the vote
13 Jul 2018 at 18:37hrs | Views
The video of a lady counting envelopes containing postal ballots at Rose Camp Police Station in Bulawayo has ignited a social media storm fuelled by denial, contradictions and counter accusations by both ZEC and the Police when asked to explain what was going on. The incident may not be the smoking gun proving these elections are being rigged but it is the tell-tale no smoke without a fire!
What is clear is that there are some people in the Police, Army, etc. who are entitled to postal vote. If one was to put aside the confusing statements from ZEC suggesting the commission is still printing ballot paper (postal ballots can be send out ballot papers), is still sorting out who is entitled to a postal vote, etc. The video suggests postal ballots had indeed been send out and were now being collected or be it in the most chaotic and disorderly fashion one can imagine! One assumes that the Police Officers who were entitled to the postal votes had been instructed to return their completed ballots to the Police Station for safe keeping and secure onward transmission to ZEC. What the video showed is the slice in this secure onward transmission, the handover of the collected postal ballots from the Police to ZEC officials. One expected the Police and ZEC officials to carefully examine each envelop to separate the valid from those that will be considered invalid because the envelop was not sealed or for whatever reason. The process should be methodical, thorough, orderly and dignified process. What people saw in the video was the exact opposite. One has to ask how secure were the ballot up to this point? There was an unusually high number of opened envelopes (as many as 40%, I would say), the instruction clearly stated that the envelop must be sealed. No effort made to ascertain whether this was the voter failing to follow instruction or someone else who had custard of the envelops opening the envelops to check how certain individuals had voted.
Zanu PF officials and thugs alike have always boasted of having ways of knowing how individuals have voted. In Zimbabwe your vote is NOT your secret! Is this incident just another case of the regime spying on its citizens!
If the ZEC officials were truly diligent and independent and their commitment to holding free, fair and credible elections was beyond questioning then they should have ordered a thorough investigation into this Ross Camp Police Station incident. The number of postal votes from Bulawayo and the nation at large may be small, 5% at most; it is the blatant vote rigging that is important. If this could happen here what is there stopping it happening and many other settings?
The nation would want to know if the open envelops were tampered with? Could it be that the sealed envelopes too had been opened and then carefully resealed? Finding out whom those in the open and sealed envelopes had voted for would help point to who could be behind this.
If the ballot papers are not secure how can the vote be secure?
SADC leaders realised that the 2008 to 2013 GNU had failed to implement even one democratic reform, they wanted the elections postponed and told both Zanu PF and MDC leaders of that. "If you go into next month's elections, you will lose!" they warned Morgan Tsvangirai and his MDC friends. "The elections are done!"
Sadly, MDC leaders did not listen and the participated in the flawed and illegal elections which Zanu PF went on to blatantly rig. The rest is history.
If anyone thought MDC leaders had learned the lesson not to participate in any more elections until the reforms designed to stop Zanu PF blatantly rigging the vote were implemented, it is the individual who has learned the lesson - MDC leaders are so corrupt and incompetent they are beyond the pale. There is no excuse why MDC has dragged the nation into these elections knowing fully well that with no reforms Zanu PF will once again blatantly rig these elections.
Every day and at every turn we have uncovers one serious shortcoming after another in the conduct of these elections. ZEC has failed to register 1.5 million voters or 23% of its targeted 7 million, failed to produce a clean and verified voters' roll at least one month before nomination day, etc. because the voter registration exercise was started very late. There is no free public media; etc.; etc. and now this Rose Camp Police Station incident is showing the ballots are not secure. Zimbabwe will not be facing this electoral mess if MDC leaders had not sold-out during the GNU and implemented the reforms. They are compounding the mess, by repeatedly refusing to listen to SADC leaders to postpone the elections until the reforms are in place.
Whilst nothing can be done to stop these flawed and illegal elections; what we can do is make sure everyone knows, especially SADC and the international election observers in the country, that we, the ordinary Zimbabweans, did not want these elections to happened without first implementing the reforms. What we now want is for these flawed elections to be declared null and void.
What is clear is that there are some people in the Police, Army, etc. who are entitled to postal vote. If one was to put aside the confusing statements from ZEC suggesting the commission is still printing ballot paper (postal ballots can be send out ballot papers), is still sorting out who is entitled to a postal vote, etc. The video suggests postal ballots had indeed been send out and were now being collected or be it in the most chaotic and disorderly fashion one can imagine! One assumes that the Police Officers who were entitled to the postal votes had been instructed to return their completed ballots to the Police Station for safe keeping and secure onward transmission to ZEC. What the video showed is the slice in this secure onward transmission, the handover of the collected postal ballots from the Police to ZEC officials. One expected the Police and ZEC officials to carefully examine each envelop to separate the valid from those that will be considered invalid because the envelop was not sealed or for whatever reason. The process should be methodical, thorough, orderly and dignified process. What people saw in the video was the exact opposite. One has to ask how secure were the ballot up to this point? There was an unusually high number of opened envelopes (as many as 40%, I would say), the instruction clearly stated that the envelop must be sealed. No effort made to ascertain whether this was the voter failing to follow instruction or someone else who had custard of the envelops opening the envelops to check how certain individuals had voted.
Zanu PF officials and thugs alike have always boasted of having ways of knowing how individuals have voted. In Zimbabwe your vote is NOT your secret! Is this incident just another case of the regime spying on its citizens!
If the ZEC officials were truly diligent and independent and their commitment to holding free, fair and credible elections was beyond questioning then they should have ordered a thorough investigation into this Ross Camp Police Station incident. The number of postal votes from Bulawayo and the nation at large may be small, 5% at most; it is the blatant vote rigging that is important. If this could happen here what is there stopping it happening and many other settings?
The nation would want to know if the open envelops were tampered with? Could it be that the sealed envelopes too had been opened and then carefully resealed? Finding out whom those in the open and sealed envelopes had voted for would help point to who could be behind this.
Sadly, MDC leaders did not listen and the participated in the flawed and illegal elections which Zanu PF went on to blatantly rig. The rest is history.
If anyone thought MDC leaders had learned the lesson not to participate in any more elections until the reforms designed to stop Zanu PF blatantly rigging the vote were implemented, it is the individual who has learned the lesson - MDC leaders are so corrupt and incompetent they are beyond the pale. There is no excuse why MDC has dragged the nation into these elections knowing fully well that with no reforms Zanu PF will once again blatantly rig these elections.
Every day and at every turn we have uncovers one serious shortcoming after another in the conduct of these elections. ZEC has failed to register 1.5 million voters or 23% of its targeted 7 million, failed to produce a clean and verified voters' roll at least one month before nomination day, etc. because the voter registration exercise was started very late. There is no free public media; etc.; etc. and now this Rose Camp Police Station incident is showing the ballots are not secure. Zimbabwe will not be facing this electoral mess if MDC leaders had not sold-out during the GNU and implemented the reforms. They are compounding the mess, by repeatedly refusing to listen to SADC leaders to postpone the elections until the reforms are in place.
Whilst nothing can be done to stop these flawed and illegal elections; what we can do is make sure everyone knows, especially SADC and the international election observers in the country, that we, the ordinary Zimbabweans, did not want these elections to happened without first implementing the reforms. What we now want is for these flawed elections to be declared null and void.
Source - zsdemocrats.blogspot.co.uk
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